Grizzly bear (Ursus arctos)

On the third of November I was treated to a wonderful trip through Kananaskis by Golden based photographer David Trow. During our trip in his 4x4 we managed to visit places that my small rental car can't even dream of reaching in the early snowy winter of Canada's Rocky Mountains. On route 726, west of Highway 40, we met this wonderful creature! This grizzly was quietly making its way south over the road until we appeared on the horizon behind it. It picked up its pace to a relaxed run. I think it probably did around 30 km/h and it managed to keep a reasonable distance between itself and the truck without exerting itself too much. At a certain time though, it stopped in its tracks and looked at us as though to judge the best course of action. The stare of those eyes through the lens was exhilarating... Even though this was not a big grizzly, it was an amazingly impressive animal. After a few seconds it decided that it would give us space to continue by going into the wood on the roadside (see next picture).

The quality of these photos is far from perfect due to my damaged long lens which can only be manually focused now. Shooting while leaning out of the window of a moving truck is quite a chore unfortunately... Sill I'm extremely happy to just have seen this magnificent animal.

You can just make out the yellow tag on the right ear. See the next photo for more information about that!

Image number: AWMC4876