A Day In The Life of Kyla: Lions and Tigers and...

BEARS!!
Ok, not lions and tigers but I needed something for an opening :)

I have been to Yellowstone at least 4 times now and have always searched but never found a bear. I've seen just about every other animal that there is to see but never a bear. I've even looked for bear poo; not that I know what that looks like and is probably why I've not had success finding that either.

I was beginning to believe that the bear in Yellowstone was like Bigfoot. Maybe even more illusive than Bigfoot. Maybe the bear only existed in pictures or stories or in zoos. Maybe they didn't roam free in the wild anymore, at least not in Yellowstone.

My luck finally changed on our first day into the park. We drove into the west entrance of Yellowstone and took the upper loop around Mammoth and down to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. It's a trip that I've never taken because most of the hot springs and eruptions that are there have dried up. It's still amazing but not nearly as awesome as when they were flowing. But since Timo was very young since the last time he was there he decided he wanted to see as much as possible.

You always know when you are getting close to an animal. Traffic comes to a stand still and everyone is out of their cars holding their cameras (we were no exception). It seemed like we were doomed to only see Bald Eagles (there's a baby sitting in front of the adult in the picture) and Elk for our entire trip, especially since we had already seen at least 20 Elk by the time. We were so excited when we finally saw a Buffalo but he was such a good hider that we didn't really get to have a good look at him. At least it wasn't Elk.

We were pretty annoyed by this time to have so many people stop and take pictures for what we assumed would be more Elk and as always it was stop and go forever. That's when Timo saw a black thing roaming around across the road and realized it was a Black Bear!! I was so excited that I was in tears! (You would have to understand my love for bears as well as remember that I am pregnant) You better believe I have more pictures taken of this bear than what I'm showing.

We barely get down the road when we hit compete standstill traffic. We weren't going anywhere. I was working myself into a frenzy because someone had told us that there was a Grizzly wandering around further up the road but with us not moving at all, I was going to miss him. Timo jumped out of the car with my camera (there were tons of people in the road and I was praying that he wouldn't get too close and end up as bear food) while I sat in traffic. Unfortunately, I missed seeing the bear but Timo got amazing pictures!

A little further up the road we stop again and see yet another bear!! It was also a Grizzly although it was pretty far away but at least I got to see both kinds of bear (that brown spot is the bear).

From then on we got lucky and saw lots of different animals. We did see one more Grizzly on our second day of Yellowstone but he crossed the road and went into the bushes before we were able to get close enough to get a picture.

The only animals we didn't see that we really wanted to see was a Moose and a Big Horned Sheep. We looked everywhere trying to see one or both of those animals with no luck... until our drive back to Idaho Falls from Jackson and the Teton Natioinal Park. On the side of the road there was a Moose munching away on some grass!! Timo was pretty excited. We never did see the sheep but the Moose was worth it.