May 25, 2026 Khutzeymateen Grizzly Bear Sanctuary – Day 4
We have been hearing stories of how difficult and dangerous it is for a grizzly bear in the wild. There was the bear who had a broken jaw, we have seen a few with fresh scars from probably a tussle with another grizzly, we just recently heard stories of wolves killing grizzlies, and we have heard that male grizzlies will chase and kill a young cub in the wild if they meet – possibly as a way to get the mother bear into heat so they can mate.
We didn’t realize that we would witness a part of one of these stories today.
The afternoon started off as they usually do with us all getting dressed in our bright orange mustang survival suits. It was an unusually sunny day as we hopped in the boat to go find grizzlies. We first stopped across the way to see if Hot Chocolate and her cubs were around and couldn’t find them. Then we stopped to see a bald eagle and ducks in the inlet. The boat stopped again, but it was just a deer – one person thought it could have been a wolf.
We finally catch up to a mother bear and cub, and we identify them as Cinder and Candy who we have seen every day. They are further up the inlet clamming at low tide and moving further in toward the estuary. We stay with them for a bit and then move on.
About 1-2 miles further in we see Samuel, a male grizzly who we saw in the estuary on the first day, who is also clamming on the beach. We watch a while and then he abrubtly stops and he starts moving back the way we have just come. We wonder if he has smelled something – maybe the mother and cub we saw but they seem too far away.
Samuel is persistant and is moving fast along the banks which provide an easier path at low tide. At one point, he comes to rocks that are too steep to climb so he enters the water and starts swimming. He swims for 5-10 minutes along the shoreline until he can find a shallower section to climb out. He keeps going – and we follow.
He passes a stream and takes a drink. He eats sedge along the way without breaking stride. He goes into the woods once and we see he is rubbbing against the tree and deliberately making deep bear tracks, we think to tell other bears he is here. As he crosses another stream, he stops in a field of fresh green sedge and stops to deeply smell. He then changes direction and heads into the woods. We can hear him in the bushes and can see some of the tree limbs move. Just when we think we have lost him, he comes bounding out of the forest and continues in his original direction.
We start to see that he is most likely on a path to intersect the mom and cub we had seen earlier. He continues on – once again entering the water, this time for a short wade to get to the next shallower part.
As he goes around the bend, we can see what is about to happen. At the far end we see the mother and cub, Cinder and Candy, in the distance still meandering down the shoreline. They are upwind so they do not know what is in front of them. We can see Samuel stop, smell, and now he can see the two bears approaching.
It is a bit hard to see nature unfold before your eyes and know you are just an observer – as it should be. I am the guest into their culture and habitat. And their story is being told now.
The mother and cub continue on and then it happens. It looks like the cub spots the large male grizzly first and stops. The mom takes a few more steps and then also stops and realizes she is in danger. She abuptly turns around and slowly starts to backtrack with her cub. Then she gives out a bellow – a signal of distress – and they both sprint away from the male grizzly. The cub rushes into the forest first and then the mom goes a bit further and heads in as well.
The male grizzly sees all this happens and is still for a few heartbeats and then takes off after them. He gets to the place they turned around, smells a bit, and then follows the cub and mom into the forest.
I am a bit shaken to have seen this all transpire. We all sit safely in our boat and we don’t see or hear anything more. We sit a while longer and realize we don’t know how this story will end. We have just witnessed a day in in the life of real grizzlies and have only seen a chapter or just a few pages in their stories.
We start the boat up and begin heading home. We talk about what we saw and wonder what happens next. We all wonder if we will see these bears again tomorrow – our last day in the Khutzeymateen.
Here is a 3 minute video of Samuel marking a tree and the ground as he left clamming and then started walking
And here is a 3 minute video of Samuel swimming – amazing that he just kept going for another 5-10 minutes after this. Don’t need to watch it all – just didn’t have time to edit it down shorter
Siri and David Adventures 