Khutzeymateen

We visited here in late May over the long weekend. Our trip started with a flight to Prince Rupert. They have an interesting location for the airport on an island. You then take a shuttle + ferry to a downtown location and pick-up your bags. We headed over to the Crest Hotel. Food in the restaurant was reasonably good. Had a recently refurbished room with a great view over the harbour. Learned that Prince Rupert’s harbour is one of the busiest in Canada. The harbour and setting of the town itself were interesting and prettier than expected. The next morning, we headed over to the seaplane terminal and took a short scenic flight to the lodge. Great views over towards Alaska, and tried to spot a view whales along the way but without success. We met a departing Australian couple who told us we were in for a treat, they were right.

The lodge has a handful of rooms, a nice fireroom common area with reading material and a bright dining room. It is a floating lodge pulled in each summer, without interfering with the local environment. The owner used to work for Parks Canada and seems to be a very eco conscious effort. There was a hot shower, flush toilets and comfortable bedroom that had a view out towards the fjord with the snowcapped peaks. We unpacked and then were off for our first bear tour. First rate survival suits are provided, it was generally us, the guide/driver, and a resident bear biologist viewing the bears (there were no other guests during our stay). We would cruise throughout the inlet on small boats. On each bear tour we saw many grizzlies, some you could see with binoculars from the lodge even. They are quite the majestic animal, and huge. All of them had been identified (although if not seen for a while there was some debating about this) and we would see them repeatedly on the tours. One of the large old males swam across the inlet to chase a female, and chase away a younger male - bit of drama. These bears are not afraid of humans in the boats so we could get quite close. My 100-400 lens was perfect, I took far too many photos. There was a photography group staying on a yacht (when out on their small craft I was afraid it would tip with all the heavy primes over 1 side) and 1 day trip group from Prince Rupert during our 3 days, it is a very isolated location. After each tour we’d have either lunch or a tasty freshly prepared snacks provided. The resident chef was very good. The guide/owner were personal and down to earth. We met with a couple of rangers from the Tsimshian nations. My spouse did a morning yoga session led by the bear biologist on the dock every day, and I took the stand-up paddleboard out for a spin. We took a couple of saunas in the evenings and slept quite comfortably, hot water bottles were a nice touch. On our return flight we took the overland route and saw some more beautiful scenery. The pilot then gave us a lift back into town. We wandered around had lunch at the pub, and did the seawall walk before catching our flight back home.

Everything about this trip was better than expected. The hosts, food, lodge, setting, comfort, and of course the bears. This was by far the best short weekend getaway from Vancouver we’ve had.