Bears
Photos capture moments so we can remember them forever
Sometimes there's one amazing second out of hours and then it's all worth it
Bears of British Columbia and Alaska
In 2022 I had the pleasure of visiting British Columbia in search of the "spirit bear", a rare black bear with near-white fur that exists only in a tiny region of Canada. The week-long trip to a destination a few hours north of Vancouver by air occurred in September, while the salmon were running. We saw black bears every day throughout each day, and on most days we were treated to see a local spirit bear. The rainforests there are dense, mossy, and dark. So when a spirit bear emerges, it's like a breathtaking beacon, or even an apparition, appearing in the middle of a dark world.
My trip to Alaska in September of 2023 took me to Kodiak for a day, and then to the coast of Katmai for a week. Katmai is a protected, mountainous region almost the size of New Jersey, with a long coastal border. We lived on a boat, and from our home base, we visited two river deltas where brown (same species as grizzly) bears and their cubs patroled the mouths of these rivers to feast on salmon, fattening up for their winter sleep.
Both trips were truly memorable.
