I’m back from my latest trip, and managed to get the photos processed pretty quickly this time. Why? Because there weren’t very many!
This marked my first visit to the Great Bear Rainforest in five years, and I was quickly reminded why they call it a rainforest. This was probably the worst weather trip I’ve ever experienced. Rain and storms caused major problems for us, from killing equipment to preventing our passage to certain areas we were targeting. And just for fun, our flight home was cancelled and we had a serious adventure getting out of BC at the end of the trip.
The resulting photo gallery is relatively small, but I’m still included a short preview below.
This was the very first scene that greeted us as we began our exploration. Bears looking for salmon, endless birds, and non-stop rain. I was back in a truly wild place!
The rain continued through the first several days. Though we saw many grizzly bears, photographing them successfully proved difficult. Here’s a long exposure (1/20th of a second), which I used to paint those lines of rain.
The sun eventually peeked through, but it took a while before our gear was functioning properly. This marvelous encounter—featuring two young bears splashing and playing—produced only a few halfway decent images because BOTH of my lenses had fogged up!
Bald Eagles were everywhere on this trip. Here, just a few of the many, many waterfalls in the region provide a dramatic backdrop.
Harbor seals are common, but it’s not until they get out of the water that you see how varied they are in coloration and patterns.
This may have been my best trip for Belted Kingfishers (normally very shy) to date.
Late in the trip we drifted close to this loud and stinky sea lion rookery.
Sadly, none of the whales we saw breaching did it more than once. But we did have a few nice opportunity to view their bubble netting feeding behavior.
We saw a few sea otters early in the trip, and on our final day had an opportunity to get close to this individual. Seeing him out of the water was a rare and special treat!
View the full Great Bear Rainforest 2024 gallery in the archive (45 images).
Interested in joining me on my next Great Bear Rainforest trip? I’m hoping to target fall of 2026! Visit the tour page to learn more and request a spot on the waiting list.
