High Country Grizzly

Things above tree line have the tendency to change quickly. The life-giving warmth of the sun can be sucked from the air in an instant by clouds as snow begins to fall in July. What starts as a lazy hike in the late afternoon can become a struggle for survival when you twist an ankle in the tussocks of grass and moss in the tundra. Or as was the case for me this evening, you can be on the search for collared pika and hoary marmots only to find yourself face to face with a grizzly.

The afternoon had spit rain and fog at me for hours while I scrambled around the talus slopes and boulders of the Talkeetna Mountains. I was searching for photographs of the hardy little species that eke out a living in these islands in the sky, the ones who thumb their nose at old Jack Frost that mass murderer of winter. With lens and camera thrown across my shoulder I continued deeper into the glacially carved valley to a jumble of large boulders when suddenly a flash of blond fur appeared before me and a grizzly climbed up onto the very same rock I was aiming for.

I blinked in disbelief before saying out loud, “well, you’re not a marmot!”

The grizzly was probably a three-year-old freshly kicked out of the house by his mom and was hunting for the very same thing I was. In all, I spent about an hour with sub-adult walking in tandem through the high country.

Far from being a threat, far from being a danger, this was an all too typical experience with a bear in the wild. Like us, they have their own hopes and dreams and intentions – which is to simply be left alone. We are all travelers through time and space sharing the same rock we call home. And my hope, through my artwork, is that others will come to see the beauty in this shared experience, that species like grizzly bears should be celebrated as neighbors instead of feared as predators.