Leon Turnbull Photography

After I returned home from our trip to BC, I heard something a bit startling. I heard that there are quite a few Grizzly bears in the East Kootenay area of BC. More so this year than ever before. This is really surprising to me. I grew up in the West Kootenays of BC, and though black bears are very common there (we often got them in our backyard, or wandering streets of town), but grizzlies are extremely rare. I think I only heard of one there in 40 years. The East Kootenays is much closer to the Rockies, but I didn’t think there really would be many grizzlies there either (at least in the Cranbrook area). My sister said they were pretty rare when I asked her. But apparently they are not so rare as I had thought.

And here I am, hiking in the pre-dawn hours out in the wilderness, to find a waterfall. Perry Creek Falls to be precise. There were certain places along the trail which were rather dark and erie. And I came across an old mining cabin, which looked as though it would be a good place for critters to hide. I hurried on by that. But I saw no bears on the hike, grizzly or otherwise. Perry Creek Falls is a unique looking 23 ft. high waterfall. It is interesting how it shoots through the rocks in different places. But I was expecting, for some reason, a much bigger waterfall. And indeed, it seems that the waterfall continues much higher than you can see. But the rock outcropping does not allow any view of the upper section. I tried scaling up the very steep cliff side to find a different view, but to no avail. I had to settle for the view of the lower section. But it is a nice view, for sure.