Skittish momma bear was more scared than her cub

I'm sitting at the Jackson Lake Lodge, looking out at a misty curtain of grey. Evening came early to the Tetons in the form of dense cloud cover and a light drizzle, so I decided to park my butt here and send out today's trip report.

Today was the worst day ever! Okay, just kidding. It was great!

I headed out a little before 6:30, knowing I had about two-and-a-half hours before the agreed meeting time at Canyon for another great gray search. Driving a little ways past Phantom Lake, I rounded a bend to see a car pulled over and two black spots making their way along the road. Had to be black bears! They scrambled off the road down into a meadow, and though it was far too dark, I snapped a shot or two anyway (you know, as proof ).

As it was so dark, I didn't really think there was a point in following them, assuming they'd disappear quickly. However, the bears wandered back up to the road, right where it curves. I wasn't fond of the idea of a car speeding around the blind corner and nailing them, so I decided to turn around and pull over near the corner, to alert any oncoming vehicles. As it turned out, the sow and cub went a short way up the road (no cars showed up, thankfully) before going over onto the hillside to munch on berries.

So naturally, I stuck around. I parked further up the road, since there was no place to pull all the way off. Of course, since the bears happened to be right below the road (and therefore not visible), I wasn't about to walk back down along the concrete and run into momma bear. So the next best thing was to climb the hill above the road and pick my way along until I was past the bears far enough to cross back over. As luck would have it, momma actually heard me and instead of sending her cub up the tree, she went up the tree herself!

This was a rather small adult, and given her size and skittish behavior, I wondered if this was a first-time mother. The inevitable bear jam followed. While the initial group of onlookers joined me on the hill away from and behind the bears (including Bart and Monique, who were driving by), eventually you had cars pulling over everywhere... including right above the adult bear! Ignoring our warnings, these people walked right over to the edge of the road, where mom was hidden in tall grass 5 feet away. Sigh. I got a couple nice touron shots though.

I had expected to get in more exploration before getting to Canyon, but this bear encounter was a great way to spend the first part of the morning. Bart, Monique and I moved on and ran into Helene and Rene, who were coming down from Dunraven. They reported a quiet morning in Hayden and at the lake, aside from a very nice sunrise. At this point we had the opportunity to meet Bill and Linda Kaiser, who had agreed to join us for our owl hunt.

Having pulled over at the "owl lot," we spoke with some photographers who had just come out of the trees. They hadn't had any luck, but promised to try again later. With gear and determination in hand, we tromped into the woods. Bill found an owl feather by the road, but couldn't come up with the rest of the bird unfortunately.

After a long search, we found the great gray again

Reaching the second meadow, we ran into another group of photographers who had seen and followed the owl for a couple hours, but then lost it. Rick and Sandi emerged at this point to report that they couldn't find it either. We pressed on, deciding to split up and communicate via staticky (sure, that's a word) walkie talkies. Midway through tromping over deadfall and underbrush, I got a message that Bart, Monique, Bill and Linda had decided to head back to the car. As it turned out, that wasn't exactly the case... everyone was off searching for the owl, while Bart was playing dead on the forest floor! Ed. Note: Bart was lying still on the ground for a half hour after encountering a grizzly bear in the forest!

Having gone southwest, I ultimately ended up in a huge clearing. Helene and Rene came to find me, and we slowly started to circle back toward the road. Trudging through one last large meadow, Helene looked up and found the owl.

Suffice to say, the chase of two days ago was repeated, over an even longer distance with even more great shooting oppotunities. We ended up all the way back past the first meadow from Thursday, and I'm sure everyone has some great photos to show for the effort.

My Yellowstone journey was nearly finished, but not before a greasy spoon lunch at Fishing Bridge, where our random loud conversations probably scared half the joint. Then I was off, having said goodbye to Bart and Monique (until next May presumably), and agreeing to see Helene and Rene tomorrow in the Tetons.

I shot south, thankfully not falling asleep during the boring drive via Lake. Stormy clouds loomed before me, but it was actually pretty mild. Entering the Tetons, I got my first true taste of some spectacular fall colors.

Lots of varying shades of gold lighting up the hillside. Probably another week and there will be a lot of red mixed in. It's really pretty right now, even on an overcast, drizzly afternoon.

There were reports of a "big" bull moose near the Lodge, but I didn't see it. Instead, I did run across a cow and calf that were playing hide and seek in the heavy brush near the junction west of Oxbow Bend. The calf peeked out for a brief moment, which turned out to be my only photo opportunity the rest of the afternoon.