Spring has a way of announcing itself differently depending on where you are. At Grouse Mountain, it's two very large, very groggy grizzly bears shuffling out of a den and blinking at the world as the rest of us do on a Monday morning.
Grinder and Coola 2026 marks the latest chapter in one of the more quietly remarkable wildlife stories in western Canada. On 18 April, after 149 days of hibernation – they entered their den on 20 November 2024 – the pair emerged at the Grouse Mountain Refuge for Endangered Wildlife, healthy and apparently unimpressed by the fuss.
What 149 Days of Sleep Does to a Grizzly
Grinder entered the den at 960 pounds and stepped back out at 768 pounds – 192 pounds shed over winter without eating, drinking, or doing anything that would qualify as productive. Some of us are clearly doing hibernation wrong.
Coola took a more considered approach. He emerged briefly, ate some lettuce, declined to step on the scale, and went back inside for an afternoon nap. Nobody blamed him.
What Visitors Can Expect This Spring
Refuge staff are gradually reintroducing both bears to a full diet while monitoring their condition, which means visitors heading up in the coming weeks have a genuine chance to see the pair in motion.
Grinder and Coola are not wild bears – they were orphaned as cubs and have lived at the Refuge since the late 1990s – but what the setting offers is something rarer than a distant sighting: sustained observation of two grizzlies going about their actual lives.
Why It Matters Beyond the Photo Opportunity
Grizzly bears are listed as a species of special concern in Canada, and most people who watch Grinder move across an enclosure – all 768 pounds of him, deliberate and unhurried – leave with a clearer sense of what it would mean to lose these animals from the landscape entirely. That is not nothing.
Grinder and Coola have now been waking up every spring for over two decades, unbothered, well-fed, and considerably better rested than most of the people watching them.
Banff's nearest Grizzly refuge is at Kicking Horse, where you can meet Boo the Grizzly.