Another great morning for bear-viewing. A few miles north of the ranch we spotted our first bear swimming across the river in the early-morning light. We watched through binoculars as, seemingly unaware of us, he fished a little here and there. After about 10 minutes he disappeared into the bush at the other side.
Then, a few miles further, came one of our best sightings yet. An adult grizzly, totally unconcerned about the presence of our vehicles, moved backwards and forwards across the river, sometimes coming as close as 50 feet to us. (See the picture above.)
Jakob, a friend and wildlife photographer, later tracked the same bear up to an old apple orchard where she (he actually saw her urinate - probably the only reliable way of telling a male from a female grizzly at a distance) climbed in to an apple tree (whoever said grizzlies can't climb trees?) and shook down the apples before gorging on them.
In the afternoon we watched on a small creek as a mum and three large grizzly cubs (certainly two-year-olds and possibly three-year-olds) rummaged around in the bush before emerging to fish. They were shy and kept their distance but through the light foliage we got some great views of them and they were huge. As we left Deborah, one of our guests, saw a fifth grizzly in clearing and David saw a coyote on the road.
