SPECIAL EDITION - 610 & HER CUBS 🐻🐻🐻🐻

I know you have heard of 610. She is a 17 year old grizzly bear in the Grand Teton National Park. Her mom is 399. Well, 610 emerged from the den last year with 3 cubs. We got a quick look at them this past June, but they were a long way off and the photos weren't very good.

That all changed yesterday!

Sunday morning, after checking the weather on our phones for the 10th time and seeing that it said "all systems go", we left the house at 7:00, heading to Shooting Star for some golf. By the time we arrived at the Club, it was getting dark and starting to rain. We checked with the pro shop and they said the radar showed a newly formed cell had developed and it looked like it was going to rain all day. So much for the weather forecast! They aren't right most of the time, but they really got it wrong today.

So, instead of golf, Don and I decided to ride across the Moose-Wilson Road and see if there were any black bears feeding on berries. We saw one on Friday as we were returning home from our road trip, but it was up in a bush and so deep in it, a photo was almost impossible. This is what we did get:

Anyway, we got to the end of the Moose-Wilson Road and there were no bears, no moose, no elk, no nothing. So, he turned left toward the Grand Teton National Park and our day got a lot more interesting. As the rain continued to pour, we made our way through the Park. We turned left at the "T" in the road - left toward Jackson Lake Lodge / right toward Oxbow Bend. We drove to Colter Bay. Nothing. We turned around and drove back past Jackson Lake Lodge toward Oxbow Bend. We saw a wildlife management vehicle, but other than that, it was very quiet. Don turned the truck around at Oxbow Bend and before we even got back to the "T", there they were! 4 grizzly bears!!! Right next to the road!!! Don made a quick and very effective maneuver which put us in a great spot on the shoulder of northbound side of the road. While we waited for them to finish munching on the berries in the bushes, I made sure my one and only camera was set and ready for action.

In no time at all, they headed in our direction! First to come our way was 610 -

She is half the bear her mom is. Literally!

This is a photo of 399 from June 2022. See the difference? It's amazing!

Back to 610, yesterday . . .

She eventually got so close to the truck, I couldn't focus my camera! The lens was too big, so I had to stop photographing her and focus on the cubs.

They weren't far behind!

They got so close to our truck, you can see the side mirror in this photo!

In fact, all four of them crossed the road right in front of our truck and disappeared into the willows. Don got this shot of them with his cellphone, as they crossed the road.

We sat and waited for a little while to see if they would return. Eventually, we moved along.

We drove back to Colter Bay, got a cup of coffee, then headed back toward Oxbow Bend. The crowd was growing again. We spotted 610 and one cub on the hill on the southbound side of the road. Don pulled over where we could see them and I got a couple more photos.

We couldn't locate the other two cubs. But, before long, we heard them calling out for their mom. They were separated by the road, the traffic and lots of people wandering around. The wildlife management guy started yelling at people to get back to their cars. One guy just stood there and waited to see if he could get some really good photos. The wildlife management guy walked up to him and yelled at him again. He slowly moved to his vehicle. All the while, 610 and the cub were trying to locate the other two cubs.

Then they came barreling down the hill.

610 and her cub crossed the road behind our truck, one bear on each side of the wildlife management guy! The 4 bears reunited and moved into the brush on the northbound side of the road. No one moved. The visibly shaken wildlife management guy knocked on Don's window and asked if he needed to, could he jump in the back seat of our truck. He had no idea where the bears where and he might need to seek shelter. Naturally, Don said "absolutely!" Not long after that, park rangers arrived and made an attempt to get control of the traffic, which at this point was so snarled, we'd never seen anything like it. The line of cars reached as far as you could see, in both directions. Soon, the wildlife management guy was running down the road behind us. The bears had just crossed back over to the northbound side of the road and he was needed down there to control the "tourons" (tourist + moron) that apparently didn't realize these were grizzly bears and apex predators. It's amazing no one got hurt today. The rangers are trying to keep the bears out of trouble. If someone had gotten injured in the melee today, the bears would have been blamed and the party would have been over for good. Some people just don't get it. There were so many people in between 610 and two of her cubs, it was a very dangerous situation. We get it! Don and I were safe inside the truck, while chaos ensued all around us.

When the traffic began to move, we drove back up toward Colter Bay, turned around and began making our way back toward Oxbow Bend. By this time, the traffic was at a stand still. No one was moving, in either direction. But, this was our road out and we were going to wait. We inched up, little by little. We could only imagine that 610 and the cubs were again in or near the road and the rangers had stopped the traffic, giving them safe passage. After quite some time, we again inched our way down the road and past the spot where we saw the bear family one more time up the hill, eating berries deep in the bushes. We managed to get that last glimpse of them, as we drove out of the Park and headed back to Wilson.

The moral of this story . . . DON'T LEAVE HOME WITH ONLY ONE CAMERA!!!! 📷 📸 📷

(We were, however, only going to play golf. Remember?)

Coming up next in BB's Blog . . . Sunrise in Yellowstone!

Take care and have a fabulous day!

Love, Barbara