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Khutzeymateen Grizzly Bear Sanctuary | |
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Bears
have always been fascinating animals for me.
Seeing a black in the eastern United States was only secondary to
seeing a grizzly bear in Yellowstone or Glacier National Parks.
The National Park Service does a good job of keeping bears and people
apart as much for the bear’s safety as for protecting people.
On more than one occasion I have seen people try to hand feed animals
as if they were in a petting zoo. Fed
bears become dead bears because they associate people with food and become a
nuisance if not potentially dangerous.
I have a lot of respect for the power and quickness of bears. The
biologists at Glacier estimate that perhaps 200 grizzlies inhabit the park.
I think that I have seen and photographed 5 different bears in all of
my visits to the park. The
bears roam over a large territory and are purposefully discouraged from
foraging around people. The
animals are solitary and it is easy for them to vanish into the heavily
wooded forests of northern Montana. The
chances of seeing and photographing a grizzly bear safely in the lower 48
states are remote. There
are places in Alaska such as McNeil River and Brooks Camp where grizzly
bears congregate to feed during the salmon runs in the rivers.
The bears are accessible for photography but you are virtually
assured of having almost identical photographs taken by countless other
photographers. In addition
these places typically have a lot of people around which lowers your
probability of being eaten but also ensures people encounters.
I prefer to see and photograph bears that are not habituated to
people and watch them live their lives as they have done for thousands of
years. During
my reading about bears, I learned about the Khutzeymateen Grizzly Bear
Sanctuary in British Columbia. The
sanctuary is relatively new and very remote.
I was told that fewer than 200 people visit the sanctuary every year. It is also remote and requires booking a charter cruise with
one of the two licensed guides into the valley. There are plenty of
big grizzly bears in the sanctuary and using a yacht as a home base with a
Zodiac as means of short transportation allows you to access the bears from
the water. Most of the Sanctuary has trees down to the water
line. There are places where grasses grow in open areas and, early in
the season when the bears emerge from their dens, the bears head to the
grassy areas and eat the grass until other food is available. It is
fairly easy to see and photograph the bears in these open areas. All
tours into the Khutzeymateen start out of Prince Rupert, BC.
I like the laid back character of the city.
The inhabitants are polite, genuine and very cosmopolitan as is much
of Canada’s west coast. Earning a living in Prince Rupert is not quite the
same as it is in the states. Typically
one has several seasonal trades that ensure a year round income.
The first people that I met in Prince Rupert were Bryan and Mary Cox,
proprietors of the Eagle Bluff Bed and Breakfast.
Mary is a delightful lady and a superb hostess.
She has a muffin recipe that would make a rabbit turn and whup a dog
for a taste. The bed and breakfast is a work in progress and was in a
state of remodeling when I first visited in 1999.
The building sat on the wharf pilings right at the edge of the bay.
During a high tide, you could hear the water lapping under the floor.
Bryan is very talented at restoring and remodeling and each visit
allows one to see and admire the previous winters work. I was able to see the progression of my illness by comparison of my first visit to Prince Rupert in 1999 and my second and third visits. I was able to walk and do some shopping during the first summer and made several trips where I had to walk several miles. During my trips I found that my stamina and balance had decreased to the point that I restricted my walks to the immediate area around the Eagle Bluff. Fortunately there are several restaurants and souvenir stores within a short distance. One of my favorite places to eat was a restaurant adjacent to the Eagle Bluff Bed and Breakfast. The owner, Adrian, had migrated to Canada in the pursuit of an education. Somewhere along the way she decided to open a delightfully eclectic restaurant serving food that she describes as “sort of interesting”. The restaurant is small with a dockside setting. It is always extremely relaxing to enjoy a good dinner and watch the summer sun try and have a decent sunset.
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