Another Day of Bear Watching in Grand Teton National Park

Time has almost run out on us and even though it’s just the beginning of Fall the snow level has reached our base camp. Still we took time for two more fun days, another day of bear watching and one last day fishing the Greys River.

Heading back to Grand Teton National Park, we first drove to the ponds near the visitor center. Not much was going on so we continued to drive down the road. Driving slow, we pulled over several times to let people pass us. If the people would just slow down they would see more!

Our patience was rewarded as we spotted a bear moving along the hillside and we could pull into an actual pull off spot, (you are only allowed to park in designated spots and they are few along this road). The black bear climbed into a hawthorn tree and began to feed on the berries.

Others stopped and soon a park naturalist arrived and took control of the parking. She also ordered everyone to the far side of the road as the bear was too close for safety, (you are required to be at least twenty-five yards from moose, elk and buffalo, and one hundred yards away from a bear).

We stood and watched as the bear continued to feed, pulling branches down so it could glean every berry off the tree! Finally, it had its full of the sweet berries and climbing down it headed toward our road. The ranger became excited and told us to clear a space for the bear to cross the road!

She had already placed traffic cone to stop people from illegally parking and the bear stopped to sniff them before it decided to taste one, perhaps a warning to the ranger and to us that the bear didn’t care nor like humans. Not finding it agreeable it final dropped the cone and strolled across the road, about twenty yards away. Everyone stood still, as it started to run into the trees!

We thanked the park naturalist for her help with the bear, (at one point she passed out bear identification cards), loaded into our car and headed back to the ponds.

As we neared the ponds another animal jam blocked the road. There was only one lane left and we slowly drove past, spotting a cow and calf moose, feeding in a small pond.

Reaching the other ponds, we parked and walked down the road. It was only two days later and fresh bear sign was everywhere. It had rained the day before and so it was easy to spot all the new bear scat! Fresh scat was everywhere! We didn’t see any more bears but it was still eerie knowing that at any time a bear could come out of the woods, (By the way this is an image of the bear that surprised us the last trip)!

There were some hooded mergansers and a flock of mallard ducks.

We had just missed an osprey as it plunged into the pond and flew away clutching a nice cut throat trout. A photographer got a great sequence of images and shared them with us. The trip isn’t just about bears and moose.

Time had flown by and we returned to Jackson for a late lunch time meal in a warm restaurant. Any day we spot a bear is a good day and we counted ourselves lucky. We have seen