Six Black Bears in a day at Grand Teton National Park, our personal best!

 

The smoke here has been really bad. The sun rose in a gross red parody of its yellow self and sets in a deep red, In the above image you see a paraglider near Teton Village, that Renita took through the windshield).  We usually stay inside but it was reported that the road in the park was closed because of grizzly and black bears and so we made a quick trip to the park.

Its berry time and that’s one of the best times to spot bears as they ignore people while they are feeding on berries, trying to put on fat for their winter hibernation. When we arrived at the park the road was closed but while we turned around the road closure sign had been moved and the road had just been opened!

Heading up the road we spotted three bears descending down the hill. It was a black bear sow and her two cubs, and they quickly reached the berry trees and started to feed, (the sow did anyway). The cubs were coys, cubs of the year and one climber a tree for safety while the other played on the ground.

Because of their small size they were hard to see, in the photo you only see three black spots, it was the best I could do of the bear family).

We decided to head further down the road, and we soon came upon two stopped cars. There were bushes moving and turning around we saw why. It was another black bear pulling down the bushes to feed on the hawthorn berries. It was hard to get a clear shot, but I managed to when we rolled down a back window.

Four bears in a day is a great day but we weren’t finished. Parking at the pond, we got out our bear spray and headed down a well-worn trial. At one spot a warning sign had been posted reminding people of the presence of bears and strongly recommended bear spray. We both had our own cans of bear spray and so we hiked along the trail looking both ways in the hopes of spotting another bear.

Not having any luck, we returned only to see a large crowd of people and a park interpreter looking towards us. There was a black bear boar feeding about thirty yards away! That is way too close for comfort, so we stopped got our bear spray handy and then slowly moved past the large male bear.

It was a good decision as the bear ignored us and then walked to the sign, we had just passed and started to eat berries. If you get too close to a bear, slowly move away, and don’t run! Most of the time the bear ignores you and even runs away. In a small percent of the time it will huff, stomp its feet, stand up, or even do a bluff charge. This bear wanted berries and didn’t care about us.

Returning to the car, we drove to Jackson Lake. As we passed the chapel a woman was peering into the trees and told us she had just seen a black bear. Parking past her, I got out and found a narrow opening in the trees. As we watched the opening a black bear suddenly ran across the opening. Something had frightened it. We hoped to see a wolf or grizzly bear but nothing else appeared and so we returned to the car.

It had been a great day with having sighted six black bears! It was by far the best black bear watching day we have ever had. Next year the park is going to rebuild the narrow road we had been on, and it will be closed all year. Clear skies and when in bear country always carry bear spray!