Bearizona Wildlife Park

Author's Comments

I will say upfront that wildlife parks are a complicated subject for me. The photograph you make here is not the photograph you would make in the actual Rockies or in Yellowstone, and pretending otherwise does no one any favors. But Bearizona has something working in its favor that most drive-through parks do not, and that is the ponderosa pine forest the animals move through. The trees are real. The light filtering down through them in early morning is real. And a black bear walking through dappled forest light at seven in the morning, photographed from a car window with a long lens, is a real photograph regardless of how it was made possible. I come for portraits and details. Eyes, fur texture, the curve of a bison's shoulder against pine bark. A 300mm is not too long here. The drive-through sections move slowly and you have time to compose, which is a luxury you almost never get with actual wild animals. The walk-through section is where the birds of prey live, and the demonstration handlers know what they are doing. A great horned owl turning its head against a clean forest backdrop is worth the wait. Mornings only. By midday the light goes flat, the animals find shade, and the families arrive in numbers. Spring and fall give you the best color in the understory and the most active animals. Williams sits at near seven thousand feet, which means the light has that high-country clarity I always come back to in northern Arizona, even at a roadside park off Route 66.

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