Mussel Inlet

Mussel inlet was named by one of George Vancouver’s officers. During their exploration in the 1790’s they had found mussels at this inlet, ate them and got terribly sick with one of Vancouver’s men dying. No mussels for me, I’m just here to see grizzlies.

The day starts off clear overhead but cloudy/foggy at sea level. We kept going between clear and foggy conditions up until we arrived at the inlet. It made for some great photography.

There are very few boats in this part of the GBR. We see an occasional fishing boat but not much else. My guess is that this part of the GBR is so remote and being early October, the end of the tourist season, are the main reasons for the lack of traffic.

We jumped into a zodiac for the ride to shore. I made sure to bring my tripod this time as we were not doing any bushwhacking. As soon as we arrived we walked less than 200’ to see grizzlies; a mom and her two cubs were fishing in the river and dining on salmon like we weren’t even there.

 At the same time a second pair of grizzlies was further up along the shore just doing whatever grizzlies do. The family in the river was not more than a couple hundred feet from us.

We stayed at Mussel inlet from about 930 AM to 400PM wandering about a mile up and down the river almost always seeing grizzlies.

Towards the end of the day we saw a mom and cub come over to our side of the river looking for a spot to dig up roots.

Once our guide spotted them rooting he motioned for us to come out from the forest to watch. We got just a little too close, mom was huffing and giving other indications that we were too close for her comfort. We backed off about 10 feet, just under the cover of the trees and then she was okay with us.

They were digging around and eating for 20 minutes or so before they decided they had enough and went back to the other side of the river. In all we probably saw 12 different grizzlies that day; at play, eating or just roaming around.

On the way out we came across humpback whales just swimming along minding their own business.

We returned to the lodge for another wonderful meal with appetizers and dessert. One could get spoiled living like this. Tim met with us again and planned out our next day; Gribbell Island and a bear stand to find black and spirit bears.

Thank you for stopping by,

Mark