Bear Viewing away from the Crowds. As featured on New Lives in the Wild with Ben Fogle, in The Sunday Times, the FT, The Guardian, The Huffington Post, Travel & Leisure and the Wall Street Journal.
Bear Viewing away from the Tourist Crowds
Have you dreamed of watching a wild Canadian bear, deep in habitat unchanged in a thousand years, eating berries or fishing for salmon?
Do you prefer the idea of walking softly and quietly on a wildlife trail, led by a veteran bear guide, to being cooped up in a tourist boat or on a commercial viewing stand?
At Wild Bear Lodge we believe we offer the most authentic bear-viewing experience in western Canada, an experience that is at once untrammelled and wild, and extremely safe.
We specialise in taking tiny groups (usually 2-4 guests) deep into bear terrain in remote valleys where you will not see another tourist group all day.
Wild Bear Lodge (Grizzly Bear Ranch until 2019) has been running since 2006, making it one of the pioneer bear-viewing lodges in British Columbia.
Tucked away in a remote valley about a day’s drive from Vancouver, Calgary or Spokane in the US, the lodge is owned and run by Julius Strauss, one of BC’s most experienced bear guides.
With our guests we roam far and wide in a bid to secure the rarest and most memorable bear sightings.
As well as grizzly and black bears we may also get a chance to watch deer, moose, elk, bald eagles, porcupines, and, more rarely, cougars, bobcats, coyotes and grey wolves.
We are surrounded by hundreds of square kilometres of unpeopled wilderness where animals interact with their habitat in the way they have since the last Ice Age.
A Pristine Valley & Your own Riverside Cabin
At Wild Bear Lodge we pride ourselves on the rugged professionalism and perfect safety record of our guides.
But we also ensure that we offer warmth, comfort and hospitality.
Each guest or couple is given their own log cabin with a wood-burning stove and a view over the river that runs past the lodge.
Every evening our guests join us for dinner where we discuss what we have seen over a glass of wine and a fresh, generous meal.
After dinner guides lead an interactive discussion about bears and wildlife in an atmosphere that is cosy, collegiate and relaxed.
Wild Bear Lodge is extremely active in conservation and charity work.
Its signature achievements include co-leading a successful campaign to end grizzly bear hunting in British Columbia.
We have also taken part in a ground-breaking science project to develop facial recognition for grizzly bears.
Most recently the lodge has initiated a programme for wounded military veterans from different parts of the world. In 2021 we ran our first project for British and Canadians in cooperation with the Invictus Games.
In 2023 we are running a project for wounded Ukrainian soldiers in cooperation with the Mindy Foundation in Kyiv.
Wild Bear Lodge has had extensive media coverage.
The FT, the Sunday Times, Travel & Leisure and the Guardian have all written about the experiences we offer.
The story of how Julius reinvented himself after a decade on the world’s frontlines as a war reporter has also featured on the BBC and on New Lives in the Wild with Ben Fogle.