Vacation 2011–Day 4

Supposedly, my family visited Yellowstone in the distant past. During that trip, the only bear that they saw was in Washington. This vacation is not a repeat performance. Along with the apparently usual roadside visits from bison and elk, a brown bear was walking not too far from the road. We stopped and managed to snap off several shots. Further along the road, we encountered a pair of coyotes. We also think that we saw a wolf along a stretch of road that lacked pullouts. When we spotted our first heron of the trip, we were warned not to scare it away. Trust me when I say that we were nowhere near close enough to scare it. We stopped by Lewis Falls (not to be confused with the series of waterfalls in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest) to capture our first waterfall picture of the trip. At one point, we stopped by a lake to take a picture of an eagle. At another lake, we spotted a pair of grebes. There were numerous geese on the lake as well. I might as well mention that we also saw crows.



Our destination for the day was Grand Teton National Park. We left the limits of Yellowstone and immediately spotted our second bear. Like before, I could tell that it was brown… in color. I never got a good enough look for proper identification. After entering the Tetons, we encountered a very busy area. We saw some signs regarding wildlife in the area. Parked cars lined the road. Cameras and tripods were pointed in multiple directions. We stopped and heard that there were grizzlies in the area. Everyone was waiting for them to reappear. We momentarily joined the wait. We saw pelicans, but no bears. We couldn’t spend the rest of our lives waiting for something that might happen, so we continued on.

We needed to do more than drive around, so we visited Jenny Lake. While we had seen red squirrels at our campground the previous two days, we finally managed to get a picture. We headed for the trail’s offshoot to Moose Ponds. Not surprisingly, we saw no moose. We did manage to see our first marmots. We continued on the loop trail hoping for a loop. A creek took the place of the trail. While we managed to work our way around Trail Creek for a reasonable distance, we gave up on finishing the loop. On our way back, we saw more marmots. At one point, we heard the screech of a red-tailed hawk. Around this time, a marmot climbed a nearby rock. I kept telling the hawk that there was food. He just circled and shrieked. Perhaps he saw the potential food as well as us pesky humans. While I would have loved getting a shot, it seemed best to leave them alone. We continued around Jenny Lake to Hidden Falls. We each snapped several shots. Mine probably didn’t turn out since I kind of forgot to focus. Perhaps I could have tried again, but I felt guilty hogging the viewpoint. I don’t want to punish others for my mistakes. After our camera vest appeared to become worthless due to an expanding tear, we moved camera gear to the backpack. I decided to leave my 18-55mm lens on rather than reattach my 150-500mm. That turned out to be a mistake. On our way back to the parking area, we were informed about a black bear cub near the trail. We had no problems spotting it, but I had the wrong lens. Everything that I took seemed too distant. I will try to salvage one of these pictures, but I will not make any promises. At one point, the bear started walking the trail. I tried to inform him that it’s a people trail, not a bear trail. With a group coming from the opposite direction, we had him inadvertently trapped. The bear noticed the other group and turned towards us. My sister tried to run away, but I reminded her not to. I drifted a little towards the water. The bear’s escape should be up the hill. I even told him, “Go up the hill.” He did his job. Despite comments from the other group, I continued along the trail. I knew the bear was there and knew that we needed to get by. The fact that he ran away from us validated the cliché, “He’s more afraid of you than you are of him.” Since he wanted nothing to do with us and had gotten out of our way, I wasn’t concerned with safety. When asked by the other group if it was safe, I mentioned that I made it through.

Before reentering Yellowstone, we had to cross Jackson Lake Dam. From this location, I saw some pelicans swimming. We found a parking area shortly after the dam. Hopefully, we got a picture worth keeping.

We returned to camp by taking a different road. Between Lake Village and Fishing Bridge, we encountered slow traffic. We saw a ranger park by the side of the road and grab a rifle. He eventually fired up in the air and scared off a brown bear. We visited Fishing Bridge in hopes of finding a cell phone signal. There was no luck. While there, we heard a couple more rifle shots. I’m guessing that the earlier shots were not enough to move the grizzly. Closer to our campsite, we ran into more traffic problems. With a vehicle conveniently stopped in the middle of the road, I saw a couple of cranes. Since we weren’t moving anyway, I stepped out of the car and snapped a few shots. Of course, the cranes weren’t stopping traffic. It was another brown bear. Even after we managed to move, I couldn’t get a shot. The vehicle that was giving us problems eventually stopped again, conveniently out of range for the bear. Why did the driver stop? Take a guess. There was one more brown bear. With traffic starting to move, I managed to rush a shot or two before leaving the area. I might as well mention that we also saw cowbirds, scaup, and goldeneyes.