The Grizzly bear was officially hunted to extinction in California by the year 1922. If I didn’t know this I would’ve sworn this was a Grizz. The salmon were running in record numbers due to great water levels and I woke up early to see if the Bears would return for the run. I arrived early, and followed the paw prints in the frost right up to the edge of the creek where I was greeted with the typical California Black Bear. I started to photograph him and noticed some of the brush behind him moving, and out came the largest Black/Brown bear Ive ever seen in California. The ranger had arrived by this time and told me that it was also the largest Bear he had seen by the creek as well. She proceeded to sit in the middle of the creek and gorge on the plentiful Salmon. I was at most 20 yards, but both Bears paid me no attention as there was enough Salmon for everyone. I created monopod with my smaller Gitzo tripod and shot with a 100-400mm at high ISO to assure sharpness in the low early morning light.
