NATURE
Kicking Off The Summer Tourist Season
My close encounter with a Grizzly bear
Kicking off the summer tourist season at Yellowstone National Park, a bison gored a woman and tossed her up 10 feet into the air. She was on a boardwalk within 10 feet of the animal when the incident occurred and is currently recovering in a hospital bed. Reports of her death by NBC News were exaggerated.
For the record, the National Park Service recommends that people stay at least 100 yards away from bears and wolves and at least 25 yards away from all animals, including bison and elk.
I’ve been to Yellowstone several times and I know the bison appear slow-moving — when they aren’t moving, but Jesus look at the size of the things. It boggles my mind that some people do not seem to find them threatening.
These are massive animals with horns that could easily head butt, gore, and trample a person, with no risk of injury to themselves. I see a bison and I see a bull. Would you go up and pet a bull?
I have a theory that some people just lose their minds in nature as they have been so deprived of it for so long. They are like the 5-year-old girls I’ve seen at Disney World that have received the full princess makeover with hair, makeup, and nails, completely dazed and confused and drunk with having all their wishes come true.
On one visit to the park, we went on a crack of dawn hike in Lamar Valley and heard wolves howling. This is what we live for. To be out alone in a dark wild place with a headlamp on and know wolves are within howling distance. This is what gets us out of bed at 5 am on vacation.
Humans have destroyed most predators that would be a threat to us in most developed places, and to be in a place where an animal could actually kill you is to feel truly alive.
It’s completely different than fear of being a crime victim in a city because when you go into the backcountry, you go in knowingly accepting the risk. It’s part of what makes hiking in bear country desirable for many people.
I realize to some, that sounds crazy. But we all take risks every day. We pick the ones that we find acceptable. Ours is occasionally camping where bears roam free. We also always bring bear spray and keep it accessible at all times. No bells though, locals call bear bells dinner bells.
Most wild animals want nothing to do with people. The vast majority of encounters are either accidents or more often due to negligence on people’s part.
Case in point, I recall a few summers ago, a woman attempted to pet a bison. People have been known to chase after Grizzly bears.
As the morning dawned, we noticed large numbers of bison, distant black specks on the grassy valley. We kept our eye on them, as one place you do not want to end up is in the middle of a bison herd.
They seemed to be moving slowly, but in a short time they were closer than was comfortable. It took some maneuvering off-trail to avoid being cornered, but we managed to stay clear of them.
The same trip, we visited Grand Teton National Park. Nearing dusk, we stopped at a pull out near the Jackson Park Lodge and walked through the waist-high sagebrush to an overlook facing an area filled with large willows, which is prime moose habitat. As we stood scanning the area with our binoculars, we heard some yelling coming from the road about 30 yards behind us.
“There’s a bear. Look, it’s heading right for those hikers!!”
We looked around and we didn’t see anything. We yelled back, “Where?!!”
We saw them pointing and backed up in the opposite direction. Within a moment, it appeared out of the sagebrush about 10 feet away. We watched in amazement as it headed towards the willow flats below. It ambled with confidence at a fast pace, not running, but covering ground quickly.
We hadn’t seen it because the sagebrush was so high. It literally passed over the spot we were standing before we had backed away.
I was exhilarated and in awe. If it had looked directly at us, that would have been another story that might have involved a change of underwear, but to be able to observe it so closely without feeling under threat had me on a shaky joyful cloud, kind of like I just had a princess makeover.
I scrambled quickly and snapped a few photos of it as it moved along the bottom of the ridge below us.
People are instructed to be a minimum of 100 yards away from bears, but there are no rules for the bears.
