The Grizzly Bear & the Calf

Barby and I were headed towards Norris in the early morning and the rain was just coming down in buckets. We saw about 10 people standing in the rain near a big meadow with spotting scopes and cameras. Hmmm....it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that something big was happening since expensive digital cameras, 600 mm lens, and rain don't get along ...something was up. We hiked over to the crowd and were stunned, heartbroken, and exhilarated all at the same time. About 200 yards away a grizzly bear was devouring a elk calf right in front of our eyes. It was so surreal, the rain was pouring down, it was so still all you could hear was the rain. The most heart breaking moment of all was when the mother elk came over and paced nervously back and forth on the other side of the river watching the bear, and meanwhile the geese just swam peacefully on the small pond like nothing at all was happening. I must admit I was a little uneasy watching a feeding grizzly at close range , especially when a park ranger came over and told us to head back to vehicles if the bear started to move in our direction...unreal.

I'm sorry about the quality of the photos it was literally pouring down rain, my rain coat was on the camera while I stood out in the rain in a t-shirt.. I captured this with a 300mm telephoto lens and with the nasty weather and the low light I pushed my gear as much as I could.

Please respect all wildlife stay back, if you want to get in close get a good lens or scope, you might be glad you did.