a momma bear and babies...

We went into Grand Teton National Park for a fun day. At the end of the day we came across 20 or more cars parked along the road. They all had cameras with lenses that were long and huge and were all standing on top of their vehicles. They were shooting a grizzly bear and her two cubs. A guy invited Us to climb up on his suburban. But just as we did the mom went into the willows. Then the ranger came along and said this bears mother and her three cubs were about 10 miles away. So off we went on a bear hunt. This above picture is that bear. Wish I would have had a more powerful lens, I have an awesome camera, but it didn't do justice to see this bear.

Here she is again at this stage I was on top of another suburban and the bear was about 90 yards away from me.

You can barely see a herd of elk in this meadow. There is a grizzly bear trying to catch and kill a baby elk for her two babies. There is about a 3 week time period where the baby elk aren't fast enough to get away from the momma bear. So she kills a couple of baby elk a day to feed her cubs.

This was the momma grizzly they call 399. She has three cubs behind her. We are on the side of the road standing watching her. There are cameras going off constantly taking her picture.

Momma and cubs again. One of the cubs was a light tan color. Many of the photographer spend most of the morning in the park watching and shooting photos and then return again in the evening to shoot more photos. They are truly professionals and do this for a living. There was also a professional video person.

The funniest thing about this whole thing was a gentleman was taking pictures and Steve introduced himself to him. They chatted for a few minutes. Steve viewed some of his pictures. Then a couple of days latter My niece was looking at our pictures she started to tell me about a famous photographer in Jackson. His originals sell around $10,000.00 and that he is a world famous photographer. Then she told me his name. That is the gentle man that Steve was visiting with and looking at his photos. His name is Thomas D Mangelsen. Look him up on google. His work is amazing.

Here is one of the cubs trying to jump down onto the mom's back. A few minutes latter one of the other cubs came and the two cubs were playing and fighting with each other. Then the upper on reached down and tried to pull the other up on the log.

I have had so many adventures and great things happen this summer. But this hour and one half was one of the most amazing, delightful, funny and interesting things that I have experienced this summer. What a great adventure it was.