Local Getaways SONOR A RE SOR T
"
T
hey're more interested in the
salmon than you." It's a promise
our guide Cheyenne has made a
number of times over the course of her
Homalco Wildlife grizzly tour, and we sim-
ply have to believe it's true—otherwise, my
husband Max and I are doing something
truly stupid, which is standing 30 feet away
from a grizzly bear and her cub.
OK, it's really not that dangerous.
There's a wide and rushing river between
us and Mama Bear after all, and the
Homalco First Nation, which runs the tour
at the tip of Bute Inlet, has cultivated their
understanding of (and respect for) grizzly
behaviour over years of interactions—but
part of the excitement of a wildlife experi-
ence like this is remembering there's a rea-
son this opportunity is so rare. Typically, a
person who gets to see a grizzly this close
is about to find themselves in some serious
trouble. Today, the biggest actual threat
Max and I face as we stand a mere stone's
throw away from the West Coast's most
majestic creature is that we might get into
a fight over our shared pair of binoculars
and have to get divorced.
Over the course of four hours, we jour-
ney through the mossy rainforest in a (pre-
sumably bear-proof ) van in search of more
encounters. Sometimes Cheyenne will
pull over and we'll hop out to peer over a
bridge at a scruffy, meandering beast lazily
scooping up lunch from the water with her
basketball-sized paw. Other times we'll
clamber up an observation tower and wait,
still and patient, to see if a black-nosed
snout will poke through the brambles that
Sonora Resort is the epitome
of West Coast luxury—but
despite the creature comforts,
the eco-lodge still manages to
keep things wonderfully wild
By Stacey McLachlan
Into the
Woods
Th e Wate r 's Ed g e
S o n o ra R e s o r t (a b ove)
is a q u i c k (s c e n i c!) h e li -
c o pte r ri d e away fro m
Y V R . Th e p ro p e r t y h a s
m in e ra l p o o ls (l ef t) a l o n g
w ith my ri ad h ot tu b s , b ut
b efo re yo u g et to s o a k in g ,
th e re's p l e nt y to exp l o re :
sti c k to th e p ro p e r t y to
ta ke ad va ntag e of th e
te n n is c o u r t , g a m e s ro o m
a n d fire p its , o r h e ad o ut
o nto th e o c e a n fo r fis h in g
exc u rs i o n s (b ot to m l ef t),
w il dlife to u rs o r eve n a
g riz zly exp e d iti o n (b e l ow).
64
S o n o r a R e s o r t ( 5 ) ; b e a r : W y n n P o w e ll; f i s h i n g : R o b i n O ' N e il; illu s t r a t i o n s : J e k s o nj s /A d o b e S t o c k ;
i c o n : Tu r g a y G a s i m li /A d o b e S t o c k
B C B U S I N E S S . C A
J U N E 2 0 2 5
