Yellowstone #14 - A "Real" Bear

After the first day, because of the wildlife we had actually seen (a few elk, a random single buffalo here and there, and the ONE moose really far away) I pretty much figured we would NOT be seeing any bears or wolves outside of the tourist facilities we had visited (Bear World and the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center)...



WRONG!!! And I am so glad I was!!! This was one of the highlights of my trip...



We were driving along Yellowstone Lake on our way to Mammoth when we saw a bunch of cars pulled over again, so of course we stopped and got out to see what they had spotted... it seemed that whatever it was, was on the other side of the small meadow between the road and the lake, in the trees, so we figured it had been crossing the meadow and gotten spotted. Walking that way we heard a lady say "and two cubs" so we looked at each other and both said "BEAR?!?!?" and when we got closer, sure enough... and not just a black bear, mind you, but a GRIZZLY!!!!



Again Andria's zoom got a nice shot:

I'm not sure but I think that might be a second bear behind the branch, just above this one's head... or maybe not lol.

This is what I got with MY camera {eyes rolling} can you even find the bear?

But I also got this one of them running off back across the meadow, definitely two this time and you can see the sun shining off their "grizzle"

This last picture was taken a bit later, we had walked back to the vehicle and got back on the road and then a space opened up close to where they were so Andria pulled in and waited while I jumped out again... at one point the mama bear CHARGED some people who had gotten too close for her comfort, and Andria watched them scatter thinking OMG I can't see my mother! (That's because I was too smart to get that close!!!) Mama Bear didn't even get real close to anyone, she only charged about 10 yards and when the people started running away she turned and went back to the cubs... but it sure was exciting :)