Posts tagged “Great Bear Rainforest

Happy Mother’s Day

2013 © Christopher Martin

I had a great day with the mothers in my life.  I hope you have enjoyed the same, great memories or are the recipient of a lot of heartfelt thank you.  You have the privilege to have such influence over your (and personally, on my) children.  It is lucky for them it is so very well placed. Happy Mother’s Day.

2013 © Christopher Martin


A grizzly in the grass

From a couple of years ago during my last visit to the Khutzeymateen on British Columbia’s west coast in the Great Bear Rainforest.  I reworked this image for a black and white photography contest.  I liked how monochrome palette highlighted the textures in the wet fur and the sedge grass. But, for me, it’s those eyes that steal the show and make the image.


Waiting for the grizzlies

Khutzeymateen Inlet, British Columbia, Canada - June 2014

I’m heading up to Banff National Park tomorrow and the recent warm weather has me thinking about bears.  It’s far too early for them to wake up so I don’t expect to see any.  It did prompt me to look at the photographs from watching this mother Grizzly with her cub during a visit to the Khutzeymateen two years ago.  I can’t wait to see bears in both places starting later this spring.

 

2014 © Christopher Martin

2014 © Christopher Martin

Khutzeymateen Inlet, British Columbia, Canada - June 2014

A wary mother Grizzly checks for trouble further down the Khutzeymateen Valley


A morning of fog and mist in the Khutzeymateen

Morning in the Khutzeymateen - 2014 © Christopher Martin

One evening we watched a crab boat come down the Khutzeymateen Inlet and weigh anchor for the night.  The next day there were some opportunities to photograph the vessel shrouded in mist.  Against the massive trees of the rainforest and the steep valley walls, it looked almost like a toy.

(As always, please click on any image to open a higher resolution version on its own page)

Fog and mist - 2014 © Christopher Martin

A morning full of weather - 2014 © Christopher Martin

Mornings in the Khutzeymateen often find the coastline wrapped in blankets of fog while low flying clouds cling to the steep hills of the rainforest and the snow-covered peaks.  The Grizzly Bears are the obvious draw but the landscape of this northern part of the Great Bear Rainforest is hauntingly beautiful.

Morning in the mountains of the Khutzeymateen Inlet - 2014 © Christopher Martin

Later in the day much of the fog burned off and when we sailed by the boat I was able to have a closer look.

Crabbing in the Khutzeymateen - 2014 © Christopher Martin

 

 


A K’tzim-a-deen cub at rest

Bobbi and I just returned from the Khutzeymateen Grizzly Bear Sanctuary where Dan and Sandy hosted us aboard the Sun Chaser sailboat and we spent many hours looking for, finding, photographing, discussing and dreaming about Grizzlies.  It was a magical experience and I have had little time to look at any images so far.

K'tzim-a-Deen Cub - 2014 © Christopher Martin

That said, this image of a cub resting on a rock is already a favorite of mine.  Mom brought this two-year old down to the beach in the bay where Dan enjoys anchoring several times.  They were both very relaxed about our presence, with the elder concerned only about Grizzly boars coming out of the forest edge.  Her back was often to our little raft scanning the tree line as she ate the sedge grass.  Meanwhile the cub, free from much – though not all – of this worry, watched us in-between explorations nearby, feasting on vegetation and mewling for milk.