When you are where wild bears live you learn to pay attention to the rhythm of the land and yourself. Bears not only make the habitat rich, they enrich us just by being.

~Linda Jo Hunter

It is that time of year when the bears of Yellowstone are going into their hyperphagia phase which means they may eat and drink almost continuously for most of each day in preparation for hibernation. A bear may eat up to 22 hours per day, consuming upwards of 20,000 calories and gaining several pounds during that time. Because of this, they are on the move more searching for food and therefore may be more visible to visitors. That has certainly been the case for us these past couple of weeks. In our last post, I described the black bear sow and cub that came into several yards on our street. She also caused quite a stir a few days later when she looked into a window at the school in town causing a brief lock-down. The Bear Aware staff person came by the house this weekend to discuss our fencing and bear attracting fruit trees planted by the previous owner and he told me that, unfortunately, those two bears had been trapped and relocated due to their constant presence in town. I had worried about that and he did say that the state wildlife personnel hate taking a mother and cubs to a new location as it can be difficult for them to adjust. But they also can’t allow bears to start destroying property, etc. I’ll be taking down some trees and will remove the bird feeders for the Fall to try to help keep our local bears wild. They are definitely on the move looking for food wherever they can find it.

All of that action happened while Melissa and her friends were on a backpacking trip for several days. The day she went to pick them up at the airport, I went out into the park and had a close encounter with a beautiful grizzly along the road in Lamar Valley. I was driving back toward home when I spotted a crowd watching a grizzly across the Lamar River. It was walking in the direction I was headed so once I got through the initial back-up of cars, I drove ahead and found a spot to safely pull off the road…and waited. The bear started to head away from the road but was clearly visible now and cars were starting to back up in both directions. A park ranger was on hand trying to keep traffic moving. There were no official pullouts nearby and I had grabbed one of the few places you could pull off the road. Several times the bear would start to walk away and then turn and walk back toward the road. Finally, it headed straight for where I was and walked along the shoreline a bit, looking at the crowd.

This bear as been called the Confluence bear because it is frequently seen along this section of river where Soda Butte Creek flows into the Lamar River (aka the Confluence). I was pleasantly surprised when it decided to cross the river just upriver from my parking spot. What a great view!

The ranger was trying to clear a path for the bear by stopping some cars and having others drive through. But there were also a lot of people out of their cars alongside the road (which did not have much space before dropping off into the river). Another park staff person had a bullhorn telling people close to the gap to get back in their cars. I was far enough away at this point and was standing next to my car. I saw the bear finally cross between cars and head up the hill.

A reminder that these photos are cropped images taken with my 500mm telephoto so it makes the bear look closer than it really was. The bear kept heading down toward me, stopping occasionally to voraciously eat in patches of chokecherry shrubs.

After browsing on berries, the bear decided to head straight down the hill toward my parked car and a group of people stopped in the road and out of their cars. I opened my car door and started to get in when I heard a loud bang. The ranger had fired a so-called cracker shell which goes a short distance and makes a loud sound.

This bear is thought to be a male, not yet in his prime, but getting bigger every year. It certainly is a beautiful bear with luxurious fur. The bear jam started to break up after the bear went over the hill and I drove around the curve to a pullout figuring the bear might be visible as it went past the top of the hill. I waited and chatted with folks for 10 minutes or so. The same ranger drove by and asked if I had seen the bear again. I replied, “no bear”. and she continued on. I soon pulled out and headed down the road. At the next pullout I saw some folks looking up the slope and, sure enough, there was the bear far up the hill. I wasn’t sure how it had managed to get by us at that first spot but was glad it was just meandering and still eating berries. The bear turned and started heading back the way it had come and disappeared in a shallow swale. That was probably how we missed it, it traveled across the ridge line just hidden from view in the swale. I thought that this bear just might go back to where it had been so I drove back to my same parking spot off the road and waited. About a minute went by and there he was, walking below the ridge line and headed downward toward the same place where he had crossed the road earlier. I was the only person there but then a car coming towards me stopped in the road and people got out looking up at the bear. Soon, there was another bear jam, but this time with no ranger. The bear sat down above the spot where it had crossed before and looked at the people and cars below (and not that far below). The bear obviously wanted to cross the road.

I got out of my car and started trying to direct traffic to create a gap. Some people listened and moved but as I turned around to direct cars in the oncoming lane, more cars behind me repeatedly filled in the gap and people continued to get out of their cars blocking the road. After a few more attempts I frustratingly realized I didn’t have the right hat or a badge and just walked back to my car. As I passed one vehicle, a lady said “at least you tried”. I turned and the grizzly walked on around the curve still up on the hill. I guess it will figure it out or change directions. Luckily, it was getting late and that also helps break up wildlife jams along the roads.

The day after our guests arrived, we decided to take them out into the park for an evening of wildlife watching. We got into a couple of bison jams and saw some pronghorn and raptors. After we turned and started heading home, we suddenly saw a couple of black bears right next to the road (within 10 feet) chowing down on what turned out to be chokecherries, just like the grizzly I watched a couple of days before. They were on Melissa’s side of the car and she got this great video clip of the action. Note – I edited the audio after the adult bear makes some sounds to get rid of our excited laughter and talking.

=A mother black bear and two cubs, one black and one cinnamon-colored, chowing down on chokecherries right next to the road

There was one black cub and one cinnamon-colored cub with this female. That is not too unusual given the fact that about half the black bears in Yellowstone are actually cinnamon-colored or brown (which often makes it difficult for people to distinguish between them and a grizzly). I was turned around trying to shoot pix out the opposite side of the car (you can here my shutter in the start of that video) but after Melissa filmed the bears, the brown cub walked up the hill a little ways and turned and looked at us. I gave Melissa my camera and she got this incredible pic of this little cutie.

That was a great way to end our day and so we headed home. The next morning we went out early hoping to see wolves. Indeed, the Junction pack gave us a show of 14 members of the pack though it was viewed through our spotting scopes. at a great distance. We then headed east and encountered another black bear sow with cubs (this time with two black cubs) in almost the same spot as the ones the evening before.

We headed back in the direction of home and about 10 minutes later we saw some stopped cars and as we drove through we spotted a grizzly out in the flats along Soda Butte Creek. We went through the bear jam and pulled off, got out and walked a little ways back along the road. The bear was again the Confluence bear and was headed towards the road. This location was maybe a quarter mile from where I had watched it a few days earlier. Looking at his path, I saw where I thought it might cross and turned in that direction, again warning people the bear was going to try to cross. An RV was stopped in the opposite lane and people were starting to walk by it where I though the bear might cross (it was not visible at the time due to a small ridge and swale). I cautioned folks to stop and stay close to the RV. Indeed, in just a few seconds the bear came up on the road at that point and sprinted across.

Another amazing encounter with a bear. These roadside events are great for observing the bears and getting photographs. When in the backcountry, it is a different situation and you want to be alert and prepared for any encounter and be sure you have your bear spray handy.. We now live in the land of bears. For us back in NC, we usually traveled to Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge for this powerful feeling. Now, it surrounds us, it humbles us, it even causes us to change our behavior and to be more wary when out on the landscape. But it also helps us feel alive knowing that these magnificent wild beings are our neighbors.