Is she really just interested in the salmon?

As this adult female grizzly approaches the stream where she was fishing, the game trail comes straight down towards where I was sitting on the river bank. It makes for a rather ominous looking scene given her focus, potential speed, and that set of claws. Brown bears congregate on the Fishing Branch River, far north in the Yukon Territory in the autumn to feed on chum salmon that migrate to this river very late in the season (warm springs percolate up through the river bottom here). On the mountain above the river there are caves that the happy and full grizzlies can waddle up to after their salmon feast, safe places to slumber during the long winter. Appropriately this area is known as Bear Cave Mountain.