Meetup With a Grizzly

In Yellowstone, the bears all seem to have names. Several people called individual bears by name. When I showed a picture of a bear to our camp host, he knew her name and history.  I didn't write down her name and forgot it but she is a five year old female bear. We spotted her in Hayden Valley in a car jam and managed to find a place to pull off and join the line of photographers.

She was grazing in a field on the west side of the road

Every once in awhile, she would turn to look at us

A few minutes later, she started walking towards the road.  The ranger asked us to move over to give her room to cross.  She began running and was too close to me for me to be able to focus on her. Then she continued across the road to the west side.  By the time I was able to find a place around the parked cars, she was already at the Yellowstone River.

At Riverside - note how grizzled her sides are

Swimming across the river - I love how animals know how to ferry - she swims slightly upstream so the current will push her across the river

She reached the far bank...

And then shook like a dog

It was cool enough to see her breath

Then she went back to grazing on the other side of the river