Bears Like It

When the bears first emerge from their dens around this part of the world, their den sites are usually still under a lot of snow, since they tend to den on north and east facing slopes at higher altitudes, where the snow will be deeper and stay longer for a nice comfortable winter sleep.  After coming out of dens they head down slope and down valleys looking for new greenery in the valley bottom and on the rich estuaries and shorelines for the early feeding.  As the snow retreats and the avalanche tracks green up they will move back up slope in the late spring.

Down on the valley bottom, sites like the one in this photo taken this weekend provide a rich source of food when they start rooting around after the tender roots and shoots of the Skunk Cabbage horsetail plants.  Skunk Cabbage is really in it's glory on warm spring days like we have had with lots of light reaching the forest floor before the deciduous trees fully leaf out. Grizzly