Three years ago three Grizzly bears were born in the Moran area of Wyoming and on our recent trip to the cabin we saw two of the triplets (they have grown a lot in three years haven't they?) just below the dug way on the Pacific Creek road about 3 miles from our cabin. (we saw their brother a few weeks a go at String Lake when Dave's family was at the cabin ... see David's earlier bear posting). While we weren't as close as this picture looks (telephoto lens and computer enhancement does wonders) but we had a great view from about 200' for about 20 - 30 minutes. During this time we saw the bear with the blond face (top in this picture) make a mock charge at her sister and I was amazed at how quickly she moved! She covered 30' in about one second. If you ever have a bear charge you; you had better start spraying your bear spray when they start charging, or it may be too late.
This was our first view of them as they crossed Pacific Creek. Our first clue that there was something to see was that several cars parked on top of the dug way were already stopped and looking.
After watching them in the willows just below the dug way for about 15 minutes they crossed the road right in front of us and then started munching Service berries 50' above the road. It's a bit hard to see the bear in this picture because she is laying on her stomach munching away. They eat the berries, the leaves and the stems ... guess that kind of pruning encourages next years growth.After eating berries for a while one of the bears went looking for her sister and when she found her, she again made a mock charge like the one previously described ... however, this one wasn't as aggressive as the first but still pretty menacing if you were on the other end of the charge.
This experience was far and away the best bear viewing any of us has ever had!
7 comments:
Wow! Very cool pictures! The video is so clear and excitng.
I can't wait to see the video tonight.
I thinking seeing a bear compares to seeing an Alligator. You know you are overmatched if they decide you are bothering them. I think bears are much more dangerous though. Especially the grizzly kind.
Thanks for the exciting post!! :)
Prior to seeing the Grizzly at String Lake earlier in August, and these two, I had never seen a Grizzly in Wyoming. In addition to seeing the Grizzlies we’ve also seen three black bears in the Pacific Creek area; two at the cabin (one last fall and one earlier this summer) and another one in the same area we saw the grizzlies on Pacific Creek.
In both cases the bears showed no signs of aggression. According to David, the Grizzly at String Lake was within a few feet of young kids who were walking along the trail on the East side of String Lake and I think I remember that he told us that the bear ignored them as they went by. The two on Pacific Creek ran across the road right next to a man who was trying for a better picture … when the bears ran past him he jumped high enough to set a world record. But the only thing they seemed to have on their minds; was to escape to the other side of the road and eat the Service Berries that they knew were growing above the road.
Pretty exciting but I’m nervous with so many bears in the area. I’m going to start carrying Pepper Spray in my fishing vest when I fish on Pacific Creek in the future.
Great video! That would be a great Idea to have the pepper spray handy when you are fishing. Although you watch that fly so close, I am not sure you would see the bear coming. How has the fishing been this year?
I talked to Grandma tonight and she was tickled pink to see those Grizzly bears. She said she had never seen anything like that in her life and that is saying something!!
You're right Dan; great grandma enjoyed the bears as much as anyone. Uncle Kelly was walking around telling all the tourists all about bears and Kristi and Aunt Kathy we're taking pictures like crazy. Somewhat surprising, Mom jumped right out of the car with the rest of us. As you might imagine, there was a real traffic jam on top of the dug way for almost half an hour … towards the end of it, the rangers got everyone moved to either end of the dug way so traffic could get through.
I watched a domesticated grizzly bear on the animal planet last night ... the bear was 6 years old and weighed over 400#'s, stood almost 8' tall and was as tame as a house pet. Its owner raised him from a cub and the show demonstrated how powerful the bear was as he rolled logs, a man could barely budge, without any effort at all. Pretty interesting! They showed wild grizzlies hunting moose and elk caves in the wild. A Grizzly runs at about 33 miles per hour which is about the same speed a elk calf runs so they can run them down. However the bears can't catch their mothers and fathers who run about 10 MPH faster than the bear. I'd love to get a copy of the documentary to share with everyone.
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