Wildlife Sightings
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 "If you
are inclined towards experiencing pristine
wilderness, you will be hard-pressed to beat a few days at the Grizzly
Bear Ranch in British Columbia’s Selkirk Mountains. Or if,
like me, you
are an urban beast whose love affair with the wild is limited to
watching David Attenborough, then you should try it, for it is quite an
eye-opener." To
read the whole review click here +++
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A custom-designed holiday at a small, remote riverside lodge in a beautiful BC mountain valley
 Beautiful, small, remote
lodge far from the summer crowds.
- Superior cooking. Excellent reviews. Your own experienced wilderness guide.
- A choice of guided
wilderness activities: alpine hiking, bear-spotting, rafting, boating, kayaking and more.
 - Your own riverside cabin, hand-built with
its own bathroom and sundeck.
- Customised holidays from the end of June to mid Sept. Minimum four nights.
- Eco-friendly, solar-powered operation.
- Drive from Vancouver, Calgary or Spokane, WA, in the
US. Airport pick-up available.
Far
from the beaten track, a holiday to suit you
British Columbia is rich with beautiful
views and stunning nature.
To make the most of it we believe you have to get off the beaten track.
Our holidays offer visitors to the province a chance to experience the
magnificent backcountry from a beautiful remote lodge.
We offer
you a gorgeous riverside setting for your stay and your own
well-appointed cabin
with excellent meals, cooked from scratch each morning and evening.
You
can choose to stay three,
four, five or six nights in the summer and you can choose your activity for each day or your stay.
Your options include:
- Alpine Hiking. A guided hike in the spectacular high alpine.
- Bear Lore. A day learning about grizzly
and black bears
from one of our experts with a bear-spotting trip to a high mountain
valley.
- Lakes & Forests. A day
on one of our remote lakes in our Zodiac powerboat with a visit to an
old-growth
cedar-hemlock rainforest.
- River rafting. A rafting trip down our
blue-green wilderness river, can be either scenic or whitewater.
- Kayaking. A day's guided kayaking on
one of the lakes around the ranch.
- Cooking with Kristin. Kristin is an accomplished cook who
has published her own cookbook. She offers day courses for those
interested in learning her secrets.
- Wilderness Survival. Learn to survive in the bush with
Forest, our hardiest guide, who has spent years living and working in
the bush.
- Plants & Flowers. Spend the day with Gillian, our excellent naturalist, learning about BC's plants and flowers.
These holidays are designed for couples
who want a
taste of the BC wilderness while living in comfort.
They also suit
families with teenaged or older children.
You will have your own dedicated experienced and certified wilderness guide on each day of your stay with us.
"Without doubt this has been our best holiday ever"
Jim, Lizzie,
Emily (15) and Sophie (12) Harbach stayed for six nights in August
2010. During that time we took them kayaking on two different lakes, hiking on two
different mountains, river rafting and boating.
This is what they wrote
in the guest book when they left:
"Without doubt, this has been our best holiday ever. Everything about
this little bit of heaven deserves genuine praise in the superlative.
Most importantly to us, you have been the warmest, most welcoming and
generous of hosts.
"We have seen five bears in one day, bald eagles,
turtles, had snowball fights on our amazing hikes in the high country,
worked together as a team to negotiate Rapido del Muerto and sat
under the stars listening to our very first, live, bluegrass concert. We
have eaten thimbleberries, walked inside 1,000 year-old cedars, been
introduced to hippies-on-a-stick and Indian paintbrush and sung
songs we didn't know we knew with Julius and his guitar around the
campfire.
"Kristin has consistently produced the most delicious food we
have ever tasted and deserves a number of Michelin stars in our humble
opinion. Julius, Forest & Gillian have all been wonderfully
enthusiastic and well-informed guides and we have learned so much and
had such fun. Thank you for everything - we don't want to leave
but feel you deserve a bit of piece and quiet! Please may we come back
next year?" |
SOME OF OUR GUIDED ACTIVITIES
Hike the Alpine:
See our mountain vistas and summer wildflowers
 The
scale and magnificence of the mountains that surround our ranch is
remarkable.
Remote, imperious and dazzling, they are every bit as
spectacular as the Rockies in Banff or Jasper, and without the crowds.
For our guided hikes, we use one of our off-road vehicles for the
ascent into the alpine and can reach 7,000 feet.
Once
near the top we walk through alpine meadows teaming with wildflowers to
places few outsiders have been.
The views are simply spectacular.
During July the snow
finally melts up high, except in a few shaded
areas, and Indian paintbrush, wild lupins and many other flowers
blanket the meadows.
Learn about our bears, take a guided bear-spotting hike
 The area that we
live is home to both the Rocky Mountain grizzly and the north
American black bear.
Peak viewing season is in the spring and autumn. At those
times we offer holidays dedicated to bear-viewers.
In
the summer, however, you also have a good chance of seeing a bear and
in July and early September we offer special bear days.
 We give a talk on Canadian grizzly
and black bears and also take you on
a guided hike to a high mountain valley where you have a chance of
seeing one or more of these magnificent creatures.
While they are far
more difficult to spot than in the spring and autumn, you have about a
better-than-even chance of seeing a wild bear, often a grizzly. (You
should be moderately fit for this activity.)
Boat on a
mountain lake, experience an old-growth cedar rainforest
 You may also
choose to head out onto a remote wilderness lake in one of our
Zodiac powerboats to take in the scenery.
We live in a remote area and sometimes you will barely see another
person all day.
We take a picnic lunch and you can swim and lounge on some of the
deserted
beaches we pass.
 In
the afternoon we may visit a stand of old-growth
cedar-hemlock rainforest where some of the trees are 1,000 years old.
These ancient forests, that once blanketed the country, give a sense of
what the western Canadian mountains were like before the arrival of the
white settlers.
Raft our
blue-green wilderness river, whitewater or scenic
 Our river is one of the
most remote and beautiful in British Columbia.
To let
our guests enjoy the river to the maximum, we have pioneered
rafting trips.
We put in several miles north of the ranch and paddle as far as the end
of our garden, where we take out. We usually stop for a picnic lunch by
the side of the river.
 For those of you
who are keen and looking for excitement, we can also extend our trips
giving you more whitewater.
While we usually limit the whitewater sections to
guests who are fit, the scenic sections of the river are
suitable
for most guests up to the age of about 70.
As well as these acitivities, we can take you kayaking on one of our
lakes, Kristin can share some of her cooking skills with you or you can
spend the day with Forest or Gillian learning about the Canadian
wilderness and its flora and fauna.
Please contact
us by email for availability or further details. Each holiday is individually designed and priced.
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