What do you do when you have enough bear photos to wallpaper your house? Switch to porcupines, of course! The Stevensons have explored both the Dalton and the Dempster, and are still chasing wildlife. Their latest focus? A bit prickly.
There are some pursuits and interests for which a four-wheel drive truck and truck camper are the perfect solution. For example, landscape and nature photographers have long been attracted to the go anywhere, camp anywhere advantages of a demountable truck and camper rig. Even if one is not a pro photographer, the go anywhere, camp anywhere advantage of a truck camper naturally leads to stunning images. Want proof? Check out our annual calendars.
Nancy and Jim Stevenson have taken the perfect solution of truck camping and nature photography to some of the most remote road-accessible locations in North America. We’re talking both the Dempster and the Dalton highways, and roads that no towable or motorhome would dare. The results of these adventures are evident on nearly every wall and surface of their home. In fact, they’ve captured so many bears that they barely have any bare spots to put the photos. That’s a lot of bears.
Nine years after we first interviewed them, we caught up with the Stevensons again to find out more about their truck camping adventures and what they’ve been photographing. Hint: They found an elusive lynx, and had a close encounter with a Great Gray Owl that gave a whole new meaning to “who’s there?”
Nancy with their F350 and Capri Retreat
We first featured you in 2017 when your Capri Retreat truck camper was practically brand new. Nine years later, why is the Capri Retreat still the right fit for your travel and adventures?
We still love our 2017 Capri Retreat and 2015 Ford F-350 rig. We love the combination as much as we did nine years ago. The camper has kept us dry and warm in the winter, and cool in the summer.
Day to day we love being able to pull over almost anywhere, get into the camper, and fix lunch. The Capri has everything we need to keep us comfortable while we travel.
Fraser Lake in British Columbia
“Day to day we love being able to pull over almost anywhere, get into the camper, and fix lunch.”
Before we bought the Capri, we had tent camped for eleven years all over Canada and Alaska. Being able to go down remote unpaved roads, stop when we see something we want to photograph, and then easily turn around is what we like best about having a truck camper.
Your article was titled, Bear Quest after revealing that you had spotted seventy-one bears in fifty-three days. Since then, what wildlife encounters stand out?
We don’t take as many pictures of bears anymore as we have enough to cover every wall in our house.
A Spirit Bear also called a Kermode Bear photographed 10 miles west of Kitwanga, British Columbia. It’s a rare animal to see since they estimate only 100 to 500 left in the wild.
Since our first story with Truck Camper Magazine, the two animals that we’ve been most excited about encountering have been the Great Gray Owl and the beautiful Lynx (pictured below). The Canada lynx has a grey-white winter coat.
The owl on our camper is a Great Grey Owl. We were driving to Tunkwa Provincial Park in British Columbia when we noticed several photographers with large lenses and spotted what they were looking at.
If you look closely at the picture of the owl in flight, you can see a mouse in its mouth.
Jim’s new interest is taking pictures of porcupines.
Porcupines? What does he love about porcupines?
Jim became interested in photographing live porcupines after seeing so many dead ones throughout Canada and Alaska. Initially, if we saw one along the side of the road, he would stop and chase it into the woods or up a hill to keep it safe.
Eventually, he started taking photos of them because of their varied colors, and because he was getting tired of photographing bears. We found the porcupines in the photos mainly in British Columbia and the Northern Yukon, with many spotted along the road to Faro, Yukon, near the Yukon River.
Camping at Beaver Creek
Back in 2017, you were planning future trips to the Dalton Highway and Dempster Highway to see Musk Ox, Caribou, and Kodiak bears. Were you able to make those trips?
Yes. We have traveled and explored both the Dalton Highway in Alaska and the Dempster Highway in the Yukon and Northwest Territories. On the Dalton we saw two herds of wild Musk Oxen with several babies. And I was so amazed to see the caribou with gigantic antlers. They were grazing along the Trans-Alaska Pipeline.
On the Dempster Highway, seeing a giant grizzly in the middle of a massive hillside covered in red bearberry at sunset was an amazing sight.
We have also taken our Capri to Kodiak Island on the Gulf of Alaska twice. You get there via the port of Homer on the Kenai Peninsula and take the Alaska Marine Highway ferry. The ferry ride from Homer to Kodiak Island is about nine and a half hours.
The moss and scenery of Kodiak Island is beautiful. We saw the stunning Kodiak bears and Puffins. While on Kodiak, we also took a forty-five minute seaplane flight over to the Katmai National Park and Preserve to see coastal brown bears in their practically untouched habitat.
Wildlife photography was one of the main reasons you chose a truck camper over a larger RV. After years of travel, do you still feel a truck camper is the best platform for wildlife adventures? Why?
Absolutely. A truck camper is the best way to travel when looking for wildlife. We have been down logging roads and narrow gravel roads. A big RV can’t do that. Without the capabilities of a truck and camper, we wouldn’t capture nearly as much wildlife.
If you and Jim could plan one more dream wildlife photography trip in your Capri, where would you go and what would you hope to see?
My dream trip would be to drive the Dempster Highway again in the fall. To see a Snowy Owl would also be a dream come true. On the other hand, Jim’s dream trip would be to go anywhere where he could see four or five porcupines every day for a week!
Nancy and Jim Stevenson’s Rig
Truck: 2015 Ford F350, crew cab, 4×2, gasoline, single rear wheel, short bed
Camper: 2017 Capri Retreat
Tie-Downs and Turnbuckles: Torklift tie-downs with Fastgun turnbuckles
Suspension: N/A
Gear: Maggie rack, two bike racks, Thule box, hitch mounted cargo rack with, aluminum tool box, Honda generator
For more information about Capri Campers, visit their website at capricamper.com. Click here for a free Capri Camper brochure.
