May 9, 2014.
“There are bears out there. Black bears and grizzlies. They’re awake and they’re hungry.” This from the ranger at our Banff campsite where we were planning to spend a few nights ‘winter’ camping.
There are a lot of things to take in consideration when the bears are awake. No food in your tent (I knew that); no unattended camp stoves; no empty beverage containers left hanging around. I didn’t actually see any bears at the campsite; coyotes, deer, and lots of ground squirrels. But no bears.
Later in the day we saw a grizzly with her two yearling cubs out in a meadow. I only have a 5x zoom on my camera and they were a long ways away. Which is probably a good thing when it comes to a grizzly and her cubs. Some people were getting out of their cars to take photos of her, not the wisest move.
15 years ago I had a camera with a 180 mm lens on it and a grizzly that was a lot closer. I shot her out of a rolled-down car window and I’m surprised that the picture is in focus, I was shaking so much. I knew that a grizzly could run really fast (up to 35 mph), and close the distance between me and her in a few seconds! Fortunately she totally ignored me, being more intent on chowing down on dandelions.
Here are some grizzly cubs playing in the water. When they get out they shake off the water just like a dog. Check out the rear action of the cub on the left!
Another grizzly in the water. He (or she, didn’t get close enough to check) can’t even wait to get out of the water before trying to shake it off.
For more on this photo challenge see: Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Animals in Nature
Albatz Travel Adventures 
I did not know how big they were until I saw game of thrones. Anyways lovely pictures. I want to hunt one grizzly and cook the fresh meat, is one of my wild fantasy. Maybe I am crazy, but I want to try almost every possible meat out there. 🙂
well then. I’m not sure about grizzlies on GOT…but they ARE huge. I have had bannock made with bear fat but no bear meat. It’s pretty nasty from what I’ve been told.
When were you in Banff? You should have told me you were so close! I’m really building up my wine cellar…
I was there just a few days ago… camping in blizzard conditions! At one point our tent started to collapse on top of us from the weight of the snow. Originally we had planned to carry on to Calgary but were so exhausted we just went home and collapsed. Wish I’d known about your wine cellar though!
uh oh! yeah. tent camping at this time of year is definitely an adventure. We had that snow here in Calgary as well. Hubby had to go out and shake the trees because it was so heavy. I don’t blame you for going home! I bet your grass was already green there!
The grass was green and up about 6 inches when we got back on Tuesday. Still haven’t gotten around to mowing it yet – still trying to catch up on our sleep….
I would say grizzly bears counts as nature animals. I sure would not one as a pet. LOL Great photos.
But they’re so cute when they’re little. I wouldn’t mind a cub as a pet!
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