Mothers Day 2024, Grand Teton National Park

Celebrating Mother’s Day is always easy. I don’t even have to ask as Renita wants to spend the day in Grand Teton National Park. It’s always a great place to watch wildlife and perhaps we would even see grizzly bear 399 and her yearling Spirit. Entering the park, we passed the usual places and no bears. At one stop along the Sanke River a Photographer had two cameras set up. Her setup was probably ten times the cost of our equipment. I asked her if anything exciting was happening and she told us that 399 and her yearling had earlier been seen near a closed road. It’s a place where the Park Service places road killed animals and after parking, we glassed the area. At first, we didn’t see anything, but I spotted some brown motion a long way away, (as our friend Fred told me always look for motion). A large bear and a yearling were one half mile away. The bear was feeding in a location where a carcass dump is, and we could see her feeding on something while her yearling scampered back and forth. At the distance, with our cameras, it is impossible to get a good sharp image. She lifted her head occasionally and finally disappeared in the thick brush. Her yearling rushed to the spot, probably feeding time, and so we left in search of other wildlife.

Next we drove to our favorite pond. There sandhill pair nests yearly but this year were in a new spot. It stood up and turned the egg before settling back down for the incubation. A tree swallow posed and a yellw rumped warbler flitted back and forth.

Deciding to head back to the dam, to thank the photographer, we encountered a bear jam. It was one of grizzly 699 triplets that she had probably just released, (a polite way of saying she kicked them out). Renita dropped me off and drove on looking for a parking spot. There were others around but no one else was carrying bear spray. The bear management people were discussing what to do when the grizzly turned and started to walk towards us.

It soon decided to head back and look for its sibling. It was about one hundred yards away, (too close for comfort), and I did get a great shot. You can see the bears’ teeth and claws against the snow and trees. Our next stop was at the Oxbow where a single trumpeter swan was surrounded by common and hooded mergansers. In the distance we could see that several great blue herons were claiming their spots in the heron rookery near Cattleman’s Bridge. Anytime you see grizzly bears is a special treat and Renita had a great Mother’s Day in the park. Both our children had texted her to wish her a happy Mother’s Day! Her day was made, (the cell service in the park is sporadic at best, so texts work better than calls. Hope all the mothers out there had a great day, including the bears! Clear skies Ps the reason for this late post is that we are moving into a Park Model and our internet service frankly stinks. I hope to never go through moving again. The recent bear attack was near where we were. The bear was not shot but bit into the persons bear spray canister and ran away. There is no plan to capture the bear as she was defending her cub and the person was off trail….