Seeing a Grizzly at Yellowstone

One thing that I really, really wanted to see at Yellowstone during our vacation was.... a bear! There were so many signs about bears, so many warnings about keeping a clean campsite, so there obviously were bears in the park.

When we were driving around, Dad saw a place where you could get right down next to some really cool rapids. As we started to walk down the steps, I noticed a "Bear Frequenting Area" sign. "It doesn't really mean anything." I thought. "There's been these signs all over and we haven't seen any bears."

But as soon as we got down the stairs, we noticed something strange: lots and lots of people lined up along the river bank, many of them with cameras and binoculars, and everyone staring at a cliff in front of them. Surly all these people were looking at something other than rapids!

Suddenly, I heard someone say the word 'bear'. Everyone was pointing at the cliff! "I see it!" cried Mom. After a while, I could see it too! A black bear, (not the type of bear, it was just a black grizzly), standing behind a tree on the cliff!

It was easiest to see the animal when it moved. You could see it stand up or shake it's head. A nice boy let us use his binoculars.

Than a man came and said "A ranger told me that there is another grizzly bear!" all eyes scanned the cliff. "But you can't see it. He's hiding." This was disappointing. The man went on to say that there was an elk carcass nearby and the two grizzlies were going to fight eventually.

The boy with the binoculars said that they had been waiting for the confrontation the previous day as well. We didn't see a bear fight.

It was really fun to see a grizzly bear, even if we weren't very close. It was safer, though!