Last night’s dinner was matched by the quality of this morning’s breakfast – we refuelled Spirit car and headed onto Highway 20 just after 7:30am. 

We saw several deer at the start of Highway 20 just after leaving Williams Lake. The drive along the 20 was nice and quiet other than a few cattle by the side of and crossing the road we saw very little else on the road. We joined the gravel road at 11:30am and started the descent at 12:05 arriving at the bottom at 12:35pm. Other than the car looking dirty we were fine.

We called into the Belarko public bear viewing ‘platform’ in Tweedsmuir Provincial Park. This free to access viewing area is open between September 1st and September 30th and is managed by local First Nationers. Brown (grizzly) bears can be seen in the Bella Coola valley from the end of August through to mid-October.

There were no bears around so we headed towards our accommodation but no-one was in. We continued down to Bella Coola to find the shop & gas station were closed on a Sunday. On the way back up the valley we found Cafe Bella at Eagle lodge – it sold delicious home baked snacks to take away and was open 8am-4pm. We also found a groceries store open from 9am-9pm (Shop Easy - Hagensborg) and bought some supplies to go with a baked goodies.

We went back to Nusatsum River Guest House to check-in and found a note telling us to drive straight across the road – we would be staying in a different ‘cabin’ – in fact this was more than a cabin, it was a place with its own postal address – full kitchen, free Wi-Fi and laundry facilities an excellent free upgrade.

We had a snack and headed back to the bear viewing platform – still no bears had been seen that afternoon and at 6pm the stand was closed and we drove slowly back towards our ‘cabin’.

I spotted bear number 90 (brown bear) at 6:50pm in a driveway of an empty property we turned Spirit car around but by the time we got back to the driveway it had already gone. 

We arrived back at the cabin at 7pm and made a yummy dinner with the supplies from the café and groceries store.

Mileage 554km 344 miles 

Out on the drive up the valley just before 7:00am and arrived at the public viewing area as the First Nation guides arrived. We were allowed straight into the viewing area to see bear number 91. It snorkelled for salmon just in front of the platform (the ‘platform’ is in fact a wooden fenced viewing area with an electric fence around it on the river bank, not actually a raised platform). The bear stuck around for more than an hour feeding on dying salmon. It walked down the river climbing up the bank at one point and then back to the river again towards some people starting out on a rafting experience. Shortly after it disappeared from the view of the platform.

During the hour or so the bear was at the platform Alan drove to Fisheries Pool Campground to see if any bears had been seen there, but there was none. 

We decided to leave the ‘platform’ at 9:40am and drove up the road & then back towards the cabin at 10:15am where we saw two cars stopped - we pulled up with them parking off the road and after a careful look (from the Spirit car) saw bears number 92 & 93. These bears were the fluffiest I have ever seen!

We went Back to the cabin for bagels and left for dinner & fuel shopping at 11:30am – we posted postcards in Bella Coola and returned to the cabin to settle our bill (we would be leaving early the next morning. Chris (owner) told Alan about a mother bear and cubs has been seen along Salloopt River Road so we headed out there on our way to our afternoon adventure, but only found local photographers.

We arrived at Kynoch Adventures parking early to find bear number 94 across the road eating berries hidden next to the road.

We set off in a mini-bus for the boat launch at 2:30pm - saw bear number 95 in a field not far from hiding bear number 94. As the mini-bus drove along the road towards Tweedsmuir Provincial Park bear number 96 ran across the road to the driveway of the property next to our cabin!

We saw bear number 97, again from the mini-bus grazing in a field – the higher viewpoint from the mini-bus certainly gave you more chances to see bears from the road!

We picked up a raft and other guests at Fisheries Pool Campground and continued the drive to the boat launch next to public viewing stand. The group split into two boats and we were with Fraser. 

It had turned into a lovely sunny day, but I had still layered up, for which I was very grateful for when we were on the water as it was very cool. The rafts float down the river from the boat launch to Fisheries Pool Campground – from the road this doesn’t seem very far, but the river twists and turns away from the road. For 90 minutes we admired the views & birdlife, peacefully floating along until we finally spotted bear number 98 and followed it down the river for 60 minutes. 

We got back to Fisheries Pool Campground boat launch at 6:30pm – where the boats were re-hooked up while we waited and then set off back towards where had left the car - along the way I spotted bear number 99 next to road and Alan saw bear number 100 in a driveway. 

We returned to the car park of Kynoch just after 7pm and decided to drive straight to Salloopt River Road to see if the mother bear was there, as we drove across a little bridge a very happy couple were pointing to bears as we arrived to see bears 101 & 102. 

The lighting was really poor at this stage so Alan got out my tripod so I could do some video. 

We left the cabin just before 7am and spotted another driveway bear (number 103) and 2 bears on the road (numbers 104 & 105). The lighting was poor, the bears were on the move and we had many miles ahead of us, so I grabbed some blurry (I mean creative) shots.

We started to go up the ‘Hill’ at 7:45am and were delayed slightly by a broken down car on the hill. We stopped alongside the car and asked if there was anything we could do. The driver asked where we were going, we said to Kamloops, he replied that was where he was going too. He had a box of beer and a small duffle bag sitting on the trunk of his car. He said he had to get to an important appointment in Kamloops – and going against our usual better judgement we offered him a ride. This would mean us moving some stuff around in the car which we set about doing, when he started to ask if we liked crab. Crab? Why? He had a crate of crabs that he wanted to bring with him too… this was a game changer and we said you can come but the crabs would have to stay behind… alarms bells started ringing and it dawned on me, why was this guy willing to just abandon his car and come with us anyway! Fortunately for us, although he was willing to leave his car he wasn’t happy to part from his crabs… He said he was sure one of his friends from Bella Coola would be along soon, so don’t worry. We didn’t worry, as we saw crabman fade into the dust behind us, we joked about our close call with the maybe crabman mass murderer!

We reached Heckman Pass Summit at 8:10am and by 9am we were back on the paved road. 

Highway 20 seems never ending and it was 12:30pm when we finally got back to Williams Lake. Alan washed Spirit car and at 1pm we refuelled and left on the 97 south.  

When we arrived at Kamloops I found Alan didn’t know where the hotel was and as I don’t have free data in Canada I was unable to use my phone. I did however have the address of the hotel and after we drove around like lost puppies we finally found the road our hotel was on arriving at 4:30pm.

Mileage 715km 444miles