If I Were Going...: January 2024

This is part of a series about the Stevens Family Calendar (if you know, you know).

February is all about the Bears

Three things you need to know:

#1: If something is featured on our February page, it means that I had more photos to deal with than most of the other theme pages. That's because February is the shortest month, meaning that it always has the most empty squares on the calendar page to fill with little photos.

See what I mean?

#2: There will always be Bears in our calendar. Bears will always dominate our calendars. Because we love, love, love to photograph Bears. Many of our trips are almost exclusively devoted to finding and photographing Bears.

What can I say? It's what we do! Photo: Scott Stevens

#3: 2024 is a leap year, hence the jumping Bear progression on the top of the calendar page. That's the main reason I featured Bears in February. I used four shots in the calendar, but, in reality, I captured six phases of the leap.

Happy LEAP Year!

Cub crossing

When we were at the Silver Salmon Creek Lodge (SSCL) in Lake Clark National Park, Alaska, in June, we saw quite a few Bears jumping over the numerous streams and back channels that traverse the marshy field between the beach and the lodge.

Capturing the jump became a major goal. I did OK.

Actually, I did better great. Better than anyone else in our little group. One guy was so frustrated because he missed it every time.

I had a good day!

But, I digress ...

Let's talk about the Bears featured on our February pages:

Her left ear is a bit wonky

The big photo is an Alaskan Brown Bear (AKA Grizzly Bear) called "Crimped Ear" because of her unusual ear fold. We spent a lot of time with her at SSCL.

Crimped Ear is standing because there was a male Bear in the vicinity and she was concerned about the safety of her two cubs, which don't appear on this calendar page, but are pictured in the "cub crossing" picture above.

But, not to worry, she (and the two cuties) get center stage on our September page.

She's magnificent. And familiar to us, too. We saw her when we visited SSCL back in 2015.

I couldn't resist featuring her here.

Another featured player on the February page is "Little Davy," a three-year-old with abundant personality that we saw frequently at SSCL. No one could tell us where he got his name or who "Big Davy" might be.

Checking us out and up a tree; Left photo: Scott Stevens

Not fully grown, Little Davy was almost always in company of his mom, who didn't have a name. Instead, the pair was just known as "Little Davy and his Mom."

This would be their last year together

She is a gorgeous blonde Brown Bear that you may remember from the cover.

Some of my best Bear photos

A couple of other SSCL Bears appear on the February page, but I am not certain if they have names or if any of them are even the same Bears (indeed, the Bear jumping across the creek might be Little Davy). The Bears there are Brown Bears, which are so amazing that you just can't stop taking pictures.

All photos except upper right: Scott Stevens

Other Bears that appear on the page are:

A very blonde Black Bear that Caty captured at Lassen Volcanic National Park in California

Black Bears in Yellowstone National Park: Bottom photos: Scott Stevens

The very famous Bear 610 with her three yearling cubs at Grand Teton National Park;
Photos: Caty Stevens

We took so many great photos of Bears last year that lots of great ones didn't even make the cut to be considered. But here are some that almost made it ...