I like bears. I also like National Park Rangers. I have the utmost respect for rangers. They preserve beautiful land, educate the public about nature, and they keep us safe. I’ve also never met a crabby park ranger. They’re wise and great and I like them.
But today we rebelled against the wisdom of the Yellowstone park rangers and did NOT keep a safe distance from the animals.
Spoiler: We’re totally fine. We also recognize we were totally stupid.
But we definitely had to do it.
We spent the second half of our day feverishly searching for big game in Hayden Valley. We had already spotted the unicorn-like wolves in Lamar Valley yesterday. But our fingers were still tightly crossed for a wild grizzly bear sighting.
Hayden Valley at dusk proved to be a beautiful spot to see more elk and bison. Feeling as though we’d achieved all the park would allow us to see, we began our trek across the park to our final resting destination.
Around one bend in the road, a moose peeked his head out of the brush and walked out in front of us. We froze, dumbfounded that this long legged mystical creature was right before our eyes. My hands fumbled to grab a video before its backside dipped out of view across the road. Unbelievable.
Moose are a rare sighting and we saw it willy nilly – without even trying! Thank you Lord- what a gift.
We continued our drive and came across a massive swarm of tail lights and… oddly, people outside of their cars jogging to the edge of the tree lined road. We knew it had to be something extra special. Because, surprisingly, bison become “old news” in Yellowstone. People basically want to see a T-Rex or they’re bored.
So we crept up slowly in our truck with the windows down. A man whispered “its a brown bear!” That means grizzly folks. Alex pulled off the road, I grabbed the camera and ran into the woods.
There were quite a few people out with cameras trying to get a glimpse of the grizzly. We could see it’s muscular hump (key marker of a grizzly) and back as it messed with something on the ground. Heart pounding, we watched from only a few car lengths away. It was preoccupied and we were awestruck. It was so amazing that we were standing (or squatting awkwardly) here seeing this with our own eyes.
Then it moved.
It’s head came up and started to mosey away, parallel to us. Most everyone appeared “done” with the viewing and the collective exhale was felt.
But alas, there was still opportunity.
I tossed Alex the camera and told him to run along the road parallel to the bear. He wasn’t going deeper into the woods, so there was a chance we could still spot him. Alex ran ahead and I followed. One other committed adventure seeker came too.
Alex stopped at the last parked vehicle. He was at the front and I was at the back. I could see the bear at the edge of the trees. It looked to be turning immediately left… where he would meet Alex if he kept walking. I stood straight and nervously said, “Al….”
Alex stepped back and crouched behind the front wheel of the car. The grizzly bear came into view and walked directly in front of the car and sauntered across the street.
We had a front row seat to this amazing massive animal. It disappeared into the trees. People around us applauded as their eyes were wide and mouths sagged open in amazement. What a sighting for all of us.
So Mom, I’m sorry, it probably wasn’t the safest choice I’ve made- running towards a really close bear.
But we did it. We saw a grizzly in the wild.
Check.
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