Black Bears

Yellowstone is supposed to be good for bear viewing in the spring, and since I've not seen bears up close outside the zoo other than a few fleeting glances while camping or rafting, I was really hoping we'd see some this trip. We did, but at first only through a spotting scope a looooong ways away. We saw a black bear and her two cubs in the distance in the Lamar Valley. One of the cubs stuck close to her and one was always a long way off, very independent. I was disappointed they were so far away because I could not observe their behavior without eye strain, or see their faces. I was hoping we'd get a closer encounter, and we did.

We saw a black bear very close to the road, in a grassy depression, also in the Lamar Valley. I never got a great face shot, the one on the right is the best one of that series. The next day I think we probably saw the same bear a bit farther away as it was down the road from where our initial close sighting was. The best of that series is the photo on the left, as my digital zoom pics are slightly out of focus.