I am very fortunate to have had the opportunity to visit Yellowstone so many times. One year while in Yellowstone, my wife commented that the tent seemed like it was starting to leak and needed to be replaced. I disagreed, because the tent still seemed pretty new to me. Actually, it was over 15 years old. I calculated that I had spent over 300 nights in that tent in Yellowstone.
We bought a new tent, which we were only able to use for a couple of years before transitioning to trailer camping due to my decreasing mobility.
By spending so much time in Yellowstone, I have discovered times and places where the opportunity of seeing wildlife is greater. When we are there, we spend countless hours looking for wildlife. Most of the time we don't see what we are really looking for, but occasionally we are blessed with absolutely amazing wildlife encounters. I have many fond memories of those times.
While we are driving around Yellowstone I often say to my wife "you never know what will be around the next corner". On our spring trip this year we experienced some pretty wonderful wildlife. It was really one of our finest wildlife viewing trips.
Here is an example. We planned to hike the Bunsen trail (with me in my wheelchair, of course). I was really excited, because with the newly-installed lithium batteries in my X4 wheelchair I would be able to go further than I ever had before on that trail.
When we arrived at the trailhead, we discovered the parking lot was completely full. Fortunately, there is a nearby pullout where we could unload the wheelchair. As we pulled into that place, I noticed some movement to the east of the road. We discovered that it was a very young grizzly bear! I would guess that it was a one and half year old bear that had been kicked out by its mother so the mother could mate. If so, the mother and cub would probably join up again after mating (perhaps a month or so later). Another person thought it was an older bear, perhaps two and a half years old.
Regardless of its age, it was a very confused bear. It kept sniffing the air trying to sense any sign that mom was around. Everything was wrong for photography. It was mid day, which means the lighting was very harsh. Worse, the bear was in a very large field of sage and the sun was causing significant heat shimmering, which causes pictures to not be sharp at all. Finally, the bear was at the extreme distance for meaningful photography. I had to use my long lens with a 1.7 factor teleconverter. This reduces light reaching the sensor as well as sharpness and contrast.
We set up my camera equipment anyway! I was happily snapping away when the bear stood erect and looked in all directions vainly trying to see mom.
The pictures I shot are of poor quality. I would never expect to enlarge them. But, the experience I had photographing that bear is absolutely priceless.
After standing up, the bear went back down on all fours and then bolted across the trail we were planning to hike. Ten minutes later, we hiked the trail past where the bear had crossed it, keeping bear spray ready and a careful eye out for the young bear. We never saw it again (though, perhaps it saw us
).
The whole encounter probably lasted only five to ten minutes.
Here are some pictures of the encounter. As I said above, the quality is low, but the experience was great and I wanted to share it with you.
Steve