British Columbia Bear Safari

Intimate wildlife viewing, breathtaking vistas and pristine wilderness make this small-group excursion a true bucket list adventure

- LIZ VACCARIELLO

My husband, Steve, and I are armchair naturalists, the kind of adventure travelers and experience seekers who prefer to check off our large-mammal sightings from the safety of a Land Rover or Zodiac.

In June, we added a 9-day Maple Leaf Adventures cruise through Canada’s Great Bear Rainforest (a temperate rainforest the size of Ireland) to our bucket list of trips.

Grizzly bears chomping on sedge with their newborn cubs at their heels. Humpback whales slapping the water with their tales. A pod of porpoises catching a ride in the wake of The Swell, the 118-yearold renovated tugboat upon which we slept and showered, wined and dined with a dozen guests.

One day, breakfast brought seals and sea otters whose heads popped up, whac-a-mole style, in the glass-like water of morning. Another, sunset offered a rainbow, thanks to the daily mist in these 15.8 million acres that represent fully 25% of the world’s remaining coastal temperate rainforest.

Every day, we’d leave the main ship and descend into smaller inflatable boats to explore the glacial arches and mighty fjords that slice through mountains, soaring 700 to 800 feet high and plunging right into the water beside us.