The heart of Yellowstone is a high cold plateau, 8,000 / feet up, surround by the spires of the Rocky Mountains.   

 

After five months sleeping in those mountains, a powerful presence returns. 

 

This female grizzly bear has awoken early to find food for her two-year-old cubs. But she may have brought her family here too early.   

 

    The Tetons, on the extreme southern edge of the Yellowstone plateau, is where the spring thaw normally begins. But this year, it's come late.

 

Deep snow is still a novelty for her cubs, but she is much more focused. Let by her nose, she risks a 300-pound bulk on the thin ice of the bend in the Snake River.

 

    It doesn't look promising, but her cubs follow with only a little hesitation. With paws that can knock down an elk, she feels delicately in the water, a fish frozen beneath the ice by this cold winter. 

 

One fish won't feed the family, but she knows there are almost certainly more. The cubs must learn to find them