Sunday, August 28, 2011

Black Bear

When we were out west last year one of my goals was to see a grizzly bear. I saw two. And I figured that I'd see black bears all over the place. However, as it turned out, we only saw one black bear. We were on a low mountain in the Grand Tetons National Park (I've forgotten the name of the peak, but there's a road on it that leads to an overlook). And walking around we saw what we initially thought was a grizzly bear. After looking at it I realized that it was, in fact, a brown phase black bear. It came very close to us--I mean ridiculously close. But it was so intent on grazing on something to eat that it never raised its head out of the brush. I assumed that it was scarfing up some kind of berry, but it could have been anything. I never did figure out what it was eating as it moved along like a vacuum cleaner.


Closer...
and closer!

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2 comments:

  1. MarkGelbart2:35 PM

    The origin of the name of the Grand Tetons is pretty interesting.

    An early mountain man (I can't remember which one off the top of my head) thought the mountains resembled big tits. Thus they were given the name great tits mountains.

    Those old mountain men must have been lonely and missing the company of women.

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  2. James Robert Smith5:55 PM

    Oh, yeah. When I was a teenager backpacking the Appalachian Trail and dreaming of the western mountains, my pals and I would walk along imitating the horny French trappers who first named the Tetons.

    "Hawhahwaw. Le Tetons Grand! Hawhaw."

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