Today was not a good day for my wife and I, so we didn’t
even get started until well after lunch.
We ran by the Canyon Street Grill for a 1950s-style lunch and then
headed to the park. We were going to try
to make it to the Norris Geyser Basin, but we decided to stop at the Artist’s
Paint Pots first. This area is a
collection of thermal springs of various vibrant colors. Underneath the surface of the water, you can
clearly see dozens of vent holes, which make the springs look like painter’s palettes.
As we made our way down the ice and mud-spattered path, I
came around a bend and was face-to-face with three grizzly bears! We made eye contact, and I immediately
froze. There was a tense moment when we
were both sizing each other up, trying to figure out what the other one was
going to do. I motioned to my wife to
stop. That’s when the bears decided to
head down the trail the other way.
(My
wife later asked me what I would have done if the bears had decided to
challenge me. I said that I guess I
would sacrifice myself, so she’d have a chance to get away. Of course, I would have also taken an
opportunity to get the charging, snarling mother grizzly bear on film. I may not have made it, but I would make sure
that I captured that last moment with my camera. Hopefully, someone would come back and get
it.) I
followed, slowly and apprehensively, not wanting to run into them again. Around the next bend, I saw them again, but
this time they were disappearing into the trees along the trail. We made it back to the parking lot just in
time to see them walk by an opening in the trees. It was the same mother and her two cubs that
we had seen yesterday. My wife made a comment that we keep seeing the mother and cubs, but never see the father. I told her that the males are more solitary creatures, choosing to show up during mating season and then going off again. They’re like deadbeat dads!
Along with several other couples, we all headed around the
corner, tracking the bears across the fields.
Pretty soon, there was a traffic jam of cars pulled over, trying to
catch a shot of the bears way out in the field.
And to think that once again all of those people had me to thank for
scaring those bears out of hiding, so they could get that once-in-a-lifetime
picture. While we were standing there
waiting for the bears to come out from behind some trees, we started talking to
this woman and her daughter. She had just
celebrated her anniversary last Saturday.
We really liked them, and it was fun to swap stories about our vacations
so far.
The bears meandered off into the distance, so we decided to
head back. Since it was late, we decided
to forego the geyser basin and just head back to town. My wife wanted to stop in one of the
turnouts and enjoy the sunset. While we
were there watching the sunset and ducks, one of the fly fishermen came up the
bank to his truck. When he saw us, he
said, “Where’s your poles?” We laughed
and said that we were just spectators.
We struck up a conversation with him, and found out that he had just
sold his business after 45 years, and he and his wife were talking a month-long
tour across America.
Later, we grabbed dinner at The Slippery Otter, so we could
have soup and salad.
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