2024 Road Trip To The West; Last Grizzly Bear Images

Siblings.  Offspring of grizzly #864 foraging in a meadow in Yellowstone National Park.
(click any image to enlarge)

I know you must be getting tired of seeing grizzly bear images from Yellowstone National Park (YNP).  These are the last ones I'll post.  They are siblings whose mother, bear #864, turned them loose toward the end of last summer.  That would make them 3-years old.  

We happened upon these two bears as we drove along one of the roads in YNP.  We spotted them in the distance and immediately stopped.  Having my Nikon Z8 and 180-600mm lens already attached to my large tripod and gimbal head, I excitedly exited the car, quickly set up the tripod and started photographing these bears as they foraged throughout this meadow.  We watched and photographed them for about 20 minutes or so.  They wandered up to the top of the hill and we thought they were gone but then they moseyed back down toward us and we continued to photograph them separately and together.  The experience was quite satisfying.

A quick amusing story about photographing these two bears.  We were the first to spot them and photograph them.  There were no other cars or visitors around.  I was concentrating so hard on what I was doing that I didn't realize a park ranger and a crowd had gathered behind me.  At some point I heard the park ranger, an older female, tell another onlooker to not move any closer.  She said she was there to ensure the protection of the park visitors.  I turned around at that point and said to the ranger, "If you are here to protect us, how come you are behind me and not in front of me!"  I said it half jokingly and she took it that way.  She understood the irony.  That said, she did stay behind me and she was very cognizant of how close the bears were getting.  She also told an onlooker that if the bears came any closer, we would all have to return to our vehicles as the danger point would have been reached.  Grizzly bears are a lot faster than most people would think and either one of these could have been on us in a few seconds.

While photographing one of the bears, I noticed it stopped, turned its head and
was listening.  It heard something.  Then it stood up and I made several
exposures of it standing.  That was the first time I had seen this pose up close and
in person.  I just wish this bear turned its head a bit more toward me but that didn't
happen.  Oh well.  I'll take what I can get and be happy with it.

This one of the two siblings shown above.

The below grizzly bear is a different one from the two above.  This bear was one we encountered by accident near a parking lot.  That is the way most grizzly encounters occur—unexpectedly and by accident.

It started walking toward us.  Frankly, I was getting a bit worried as it kept approaching.  I was getting ready to grab my tripod and camera and retreat.  Finally, it turned and walked off to the side.  In retrospect, I think it was a little too close but I was caught up in the moment and kept shooting.  That is how people get hurt or killed.  Luckily, everyone was safe.

Okay.  Enough with the bear photos.  These are the last I'll post.  I know you are tired of seeing bears and wildlife.

I don't suspect I'll ever have the opportunity to photograph grizzly bears up close again so I made sure I took full advantage of the opportunities I had during my recent road trip adventure.  If you get an opportunity to photograph grizzly bears, wolves, elk, bison, moose, coyotes and other mammals, don’t pass it up.  It is exhilarating to see these beasts in the wild.

Join me over at my website, https://www.dennismook.com.  

Thanks for looking. Enjoy!  

Dennis A. Mook  

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