--- title: "When to see grizzlies in BC: the year, month by month" description: "Sedge in May, cubs in June, berries and whales in July, the salmon from the last week of August, and the stands until mid-October. The grizzly year on the coast as I have photographed it, with what each month costs and what it looks like." author: "Ben Taft" published: "2026-09-16" updated: "2026-09-16" canonical: "https://wildernessledger.com/guides/when-to-see-grizzlies-in-bc" about: - "Knight Inlet Lodge: https://wildernessledger.com/experience/knight-inlet-lodge" --- # When to see grizzlies in BC: the year, month by month > Sedge in May, cubs in June, berries and whales in July, the salmon from the last week of August, and the stands until mid-October. The grizzly year on the coast as I have photographed it, with what each month costs and what it looks like. Words, photography and film by Ben Taft. Published 16 September 2026, updated 16 September 2026. Canonical page: https://wildernessledger.com/guides/when-to-see-grizzlies-in-bc Photograph: A grizzly among barnacled boulders at the tide line, turning over rocks The bears keep a calendar and the lodges keep it with them. Every month between late May and the middle of October is bear season somewhere on this coast, but the bears are doing different things in each one, and the difference decides what you see, how you see it, and what you pay. This is the year as I have photographed it at Glendale Cove, in spring and in autumn, with the operators' own dates and rates where they publish them. Photograph: A grizzly grazing the estuary sedge with driftwood and forest behind May is sedge. September is salmon. Everything between is the bears moving from one to the other, and the lodges moving their boats to follow. ## Late May and June: sedge, and cubs The bears come out of the dens hungry and go straight to the estuaries, where the first green of the year is the sedge on the tide flats. From the boat you drift the edge of the flats at high water and watch them graze like cattle, heads down, for an hour at a time. Sows bring the year's cubs out from late May, and a sow with two cubs on the sedge in June light is the photograph the spring is for. Photograph: Guests in a boat a few metres off the rocky shore, cameras raised Photograph: A couple in red life jackets waving from the open boat on the way out ## Boat months Every trip is by boat in spring: out of the cove on the tide, along the flats, the guide holding the distance. There are fewer bears than in autumn and fewer people watching them, which is the trade. I went back one spring specifically for the light and the quiet, and got both. Knight Inlet opens 21 May, Berry Island 1 June; both are boat-based until the salmon. **What it costs.** Knight Inlet's spring bear-viewing season, 21 May to 30 June, is priced with the fall: 3 nights from $4,755 per person double for 2027, plus GST, pre-night and floatplane included. June sells out early. Berry Island opens 1 June, priced on enquiry. ## July and August: berries, whales and the family season By July the sedge has gone over and the bears spread out: up the slopes for berries, along the shoreline turning boulders for crabs at low tide, into the forest. Sightings are still daily on the boat trips but shorter and further apart, and the lodge programme leans toward the rest of the inlet: the Kwalate valley hike, the kayaks, the two-hour cruise up Knight Inlet, and from mid-July the full-day run to Johnstone Strait for orcas and humpbacks. Photograph: A grizzly among barnacled boulders at the tide line, turning over rocks Photograph: The inlet on a still morning, forest to the water and snow on the peaks ## The lean months, and the warm ones A bear on the tide line in August, turning rocks. It is a real encounter and a good photograph; it is not thirty bears on a river, and nobody should book August expecting that. What August has is the weather: 15 to 30 degrees, glassy mornings, the one season you might swim in the cove. It is the family season, minimum age six, and the lowest rates of the year. **What it costs.** Knight Inlet's summer adventure season, 1 July to 30 August, is the cheapest: 3 nights from $4,365 per person double for 2027 plus GST. The whale day needs a 4-night package. Wildcoast's Whales and Bears week without the grizzly day is $3,693 through 22 August. ## The last week of August to mid-October: the salmon Then the pink salmon come up the Glendale River and everything you have read about grizzlies in British Columbia happens at once. From 31 August Knight Inlet moves its guests onto the viewing stands above the spawning channels, one trip a day guaranteed, and the bears fish the river below the platforms in the highest numbers of the year: dozens at the peak, sows with cubs, big males on the best rocks, eagles on the carcasses. This is the season the lodge is famous for, the one I photographed for The Salmon Clock, and the one that fills a year out. Photograph: One of the viewing stands above the spawning channel, timber steps into the trees The stands ### Where September happens Timber platforms in the trees above the channel. You climb the steps, sit, and the river does the rest. The bears treat the stand as part of the forest. Rain gear and boots are lent, because it rains; this is a rainforest in the season it earns the name. 5 to 15 degrees, and the best photographs of the year. [Check Knight Inlet availability](https://wildernessledger.com/experience/knight-inlet-lodge#request-availability) Wildcoast's grizzly departures, 25 August to 12 September, put you on the Homalco platforms on the Orford River for one day of the kayak week. Berry Island runs its small-boat days through 6 October, with the bears on the salmon in its own inlets. Photograph: The floatplane dock and its shelter at sunset from the drone, the cove flat and gold Photograph: A guide wading the shallows to walk the boat, the water lit gold behind him ## October The stands run to 15 October. The first half of the month is quieter than September, the salmon are thinning, the bears are fat and slow, and the cove has the light of a season ending. Some years there is aurora over the water. Low water in the river means the guides walk the boat. Bring the boots they lend you. **What it costs.** The fall bear-viewing season, 31 August to 15 October, is 3 nights from $4,755 per person double for 2027 plus GST at Knight Inlet, minimum age 8. Wildcoast's grizzly-season week is $4,043 before GST. Book September a year ahead; early October is the last of it and sometimes the last available. ## November to April: the den The lodges close with the season, the bears den in the mountains, and the coast goes to its winter trade: storm watching, winter chinook, the ski lodges inland. Nothing on the grizzly coast reopens until late May. > If you can only come once, come in September. If you can come twice, come in June first, so you know what you are looking at when the river fills. > > Field note The whole collection is on [When to go](https://wildernessledger.com/when-to-go), month by month; [the Knight Inlet Ledger](https://wildernessledger.com/experience/knight-inlet-lodge) has the season dates and every rate; and [the calculator](https://wildernessledger.com/experience/knight-inlet-lodge/cost) prices your party for the season you pick. Photograph: A bald eagle on a stump in the rain, feathers beaded with water Caption: An eagle in the September rain. The bears are the reason; the rest of the river is the bonus. ## Questions **What is the best month to see grizzly bears in BC?** September. The pink salmon are in the spawning channels, the bears are on the rivers in the highest numbers of the year, and Knight Inlet Lodge is on its viewing stands, where the bears fish directly below you. It is also the month that sells out a year ahead. Late August and the first half of October are the shoulders of the same season. **Can you see grizzlies in BC in spring?** Yes, from late May. Bears come out of the dens onto the estuaries to graze sedge, sows bring newborn cubs out from late May, and the viewing is from a boat on the high tide. Fewer bears than autumn, fewer guests, and the best chance of one to yourself. **Can you see grizzly bears in BC in summer?** Yes, though July and August are the leaner months on the estuaries: the bears are up on the berry slopes and on the tide line turning rocks, and sightings are daily but shorter. It is the season with the lowest lodge rates, the warmest weather, and the whale day added to the programme. **When do grizzlies hibernate in BC?** Roughly November to April on the coast. The lodges close with the season in mid-October and reopen in late May. ## The experience in this story - Knight Inlet Lodge: https://wildernessledger.com/experience/knight-inlet-lodge (plain text: https://wildernessledger.com/experience/knight-inlet-lodge.md) Knight Inlet Lodge: from $4,365 CAD per person for 3 nights, double, summer 2027, or $4,755 in the fall bear-viewing season of 31 August to 15 October 2027 when a trip to the viewing platforms runs daily, plus 5% GST, counting the mandatory first night in Campbell River. Read from Knight Inlet Lodge, 2027 direct booking tariff (PDF) on 14 September 2026. Written by Ben Taft, Photographer and filmmaker, The Wilderness Ledger (https://wildernessledger.com/about). Ben Taft stayed at the place this story describes and wrote it afterwards. Every photograph and film is his. Publisher: The Wilderness Ledger. Corrections: hello@wildernessledger.com.