The Great Bear Rainforest, also known as the Inside Passage, is North America's last great rainforest.

Fjords slice through mountains. Calm ocean channels wend through islands. Wildlife roams free here. Bears, wolves, and mountain goats live close to the sea, and descend to beaches and meadows for food. Dolphins, whales and sea lions swim the waters and a huge variety of birds, from the majestic bald eagle, to hosts of seabirds, thrive.

On this eco-cruise, you'll journey on the 92-foot schooner Maple Leaf into the heart of this Great Bear Rainforest. You'll go ashore in the ancient rainforest, explore remote beaches, natural hotsprings and villages, and even spot goats as you sail into the coast mountains by sea.

Activities include wildlife viewing (bears, marine mammals, birds, goats and possibly the elusive coastal wolf), nature walks in rainforest and river estuaries, beachcombing, nature interpretation, tall ship sailing, optional kayaking, First Nations cultural tours and interpretation, hot springs and a trip up the Kitlope River.

On this very special spring trip, Haisla elders will guide you into the Kitlope, the largest intact temperate rainforest on the planet, for a special visit to a wild and beautiful landscape where mountains and river valley meet the sea.

Maple Leaf's Great Bear Rainforest trips are ranked "Best Travel Experience" by Frommer's and one of the "Top 5 Guided Trips in Canada" by Explore magazine. This Great Bear Rainforest Kitlope Supervoyage is our grandest British Columbia trip.

Dates: Apr. 30 - May 6, 2008 - Click Dates and Prices in the right margin for further details.

Trip Description Details

You will cruise through the islands and fjords of the Great Bear Rainforest, then along the spectacular fjord called Gardner Canal to the Kitlope - the largest intact temperate rainforest wilderness left on the planet.

Accompanied by wonderful naturalists, many of them actively researching the area, we have enjoyed spectacular trips here each year since we pioneered these trips in the early 1990s.

Spring Is a Peak Wildlife Season
The Great Bear Rainforest's river estuaries burst with new plant life. You'll walk at the foot of towering Sitka spruce through these rich meadows. Here, you'll see migrating birds (land and seabirds).

Here, too, grizzly bears graze on the protein-rich sedges, on skunk cabbage and salmon berry shoots. Since "green up" starts at the sea level, spring is an excellent time to view bears.

It's also a scenic time of year: snow clings to the mountain peaks and etches the blue crags against the sky.

On the fjords' sides, you'll see mountain goats that climb down nearly to sea level to browse on the spring growth.

Weather permitting, we will take in the Great Bear's outer islands. Here beautiful sandy beaches collect seashells. On rocky beaches, rich intertidal life (sea stars, anemones, shellfish) grows, and sea otters dive among kelp forests. We plan to visit at least one natural hot spring.

The Kitlope
We then head down the grandest fjord on the coast, the Gardner Canal. It winds 70 nautical miles into the coast mountains and travelling here aboard the Maple Leaf has been described as "sailing in Yosemite".

At the end of the fjord is the Kitlope. Visiting here has been described as a peak life experience by many of our guests - many of whom had never heard of it before the trip. The Haisla name for Kitlope, Husduwachsdu, means "source of milky blue waters."

Each year we have been fortunate to travel here with the guidance and blessing of elder Cecil Paul, who was born and raised here with the old stories. He has shared those stories with us and our guests, enlivening the landscape with meaning and a sense of familiar history. Cecil is a leader in his community. His life has given him a perspective and a wisdom not commonly found anywhere.

Great Bear Rainforest First Nations Communities

In addition to your visit to the Kitlope, you'll visit other coastal communities and get a chance to speak with people whose ancestors have inhabited the coast for millennia.

If you seek a journey in the "inside passage" that is rich in nature and learning, then this trip aboard the classic schooner Maple Leaf is for you.

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