Looking for Grizzly Bears with Fred and Becky

Our friends Fred and Becky arrived, (they are our neighbors from across the street), and we asked them if they would like to go look for bears. You may remember them the post from last fall where we hiked Taggert Lake Trail and where Fred accidently got too close to a black bear.

They agreed that it would be a nice diversion form unpacking and so we headed to Grand Teton National Park for a day of bear watching and a nice picnic. The plan was to first head up Towgotee Pass, next to go to Pilgrim Creek, and then to go to Willow Flats and Jackson Lake area.

Passing the ever-present Buffalo herd near Moran Junction we stopped for a moment to glass band of willows where we had spotted a grizzly bear boar hunting for elk calves. We did not see any bears, but the buffalo were nearby and Fred, who is a much better photographer than we are. Took a number of images of the bison.

Next, we headed up the pass and after stopping at the ranger station, restrooms closed, we drove to the top of the pass before heading back down pausing to look for bear at several good spots. No bears were visible, but it was a nice look at the Tetons across Jackson Hole, (Jackson in the mane of the City and Jackson Hole the valley along the east flank of the Tetons).

Our next destination was Pilgrim Creek and we arrived to find no bears. We did hear of stories where bear 399 and her cubs had showed up the day before and had been approached so closely by idiots that she had bluff charged the group. Anyone who gets that close is an idiot. 399 gathered up her cubs and left the area for a quieter place that is over six miles away.

We talked with several other people one of whom suddenly left. He returned a little later and kindly told us that two sub adult grizzlies wee about a quarter of a mile away. Hurrying there we did see both of the grizzlies before they disappeared into the brush. They were about three hundred yards away and you could just see them, one of which was scratching his back on a power line pole.

To see the bear, I first took a picture of the pole and then the next two show the color change of the bear. The third is when he looked at us. the bear. We have since decided that we need a more powerful lens as the 75-305 mm telephoto lens just did not cut it, (we decided it was not necessary after we looked at the price).

One of the people who stopped there told us that we go to a trailhead and wait for the bears, but we delayed and got caught in a traffic jam and lumberjacks were cutting down dead trees. By the time we got there we heard one lady telling another person that the bears had walked toward the parking lot but that a bunch of stupid people walked toward the bears and chased them back into the woods.

When they returned, she stopped each one and told them that if they had stayed still the bears would have walked right up to everyone. She further told them that they had ruined the day for everyone, and I noticed that none of them had any bear spray.

After noting the possible places, we could go we got back in our car and drove to Willow Flats.

Its another great place to see grizzly bears as they hunt the elk calves that have just been born. Renita spotted a trio of cow elk, (you can only see the white rump of the elk cow on the right), in a clearing and behind the middle cow, you can barely see the calf elk.

No bears were visible, but we saw lots of cow elk and in the image above you can see three cow elk with a small calf hiding in the grass behind the middle cow.

Too soon it was time to head home, but we do plan on visiting the park again, next week.  It was a good day as we spotted two grizzly bears, even though they were a long ways away. Clear skies