Grand Teton National Park, Day 3 A Grizzly Encounter

The morning of the 5th of July was beautiful.  We both woke up pretty early having gotten to bed early the previous night.  Rolling out of the tent to see the stillness on Leigh Lake in the morning light was just breathtaking.  I was admiring the view as Aaron began preparing his fly rod.  We had taken all of the items in the bear box out to prepare some breakfast and then load up the canoe.  I made a couple of cups of coffee as Aaron fished.  

Soon after, we began to hear unusual noises in the woods that we had not heard before.  Typically a rustling in the woods would reveal a deer or a marmot, but whatever was making this noise was much larger.  It would be quiet, and then all of a sudden, a giant crash of snapping branches and twigs.  This noise appeared to be getting closer, moving through the woods, parallel to the shore. 

Aaron in true Hollywood horror movie fashion, turns to me and says “I’m going to go check that out” and wanders into the woods holding only his morning cup of coffee.  I focus my attention back to organizing and cleaning up the site to get us ready to go when we finished up fishing.  I hear Aaron begin clapping, and saying “No bear, get away bear.”  The above photo is not of our bear.  As you might imagine, I didn't race for the camera at the time I heard him say this.  

According to Aaron, the bear had just pounced on a marmot or a squirrel when he finally identified that it was in fact, a bear.  Wanting to avoid it, he had hoped the bear would not see him.  But at that very moment, the bear popped his head up and locked eyes with Aaron.  Aaron says he lowered his head and clearly had the intention of finding out if this was a beast that he could eat.  He would determine that by walking towards it, and seeing if it ran away.

I look up from what I am doing to Aaron who is about 50 yards from me on the beach.  Walking towards him, at a range of about 20 feet, is a gigantic grizzly bear.  My blood rushed to my stomach and my heart pounded.  Was I about to watch my husband be eaten by a grizzly?  It certainly appeared that this bear thought Aaron was prey.  He had, after all, just been out hunting in the woods.  Aaron continued making noise as the bear bowed its head and continue to stalk towards him.  I joined him in making a ton of racket, smashing a paddle against a tree and yelling.  The bear finally turned, having assessed that this was not going to be an easy kill, and slowly wandered up the hill and away from our campsite.  Aaron slowly walked back to me at the beach and took up the paddle in the event the bear decided to return.

I packed our entire site into the canoe in about 3 to 5 minutes.  It was the fastest pack up and get ouf of here we’ve ever done.  In fact, we didn’t actually relax until we were in the middle of Leigh Lake, and could take in what had just happened.  That bear had been hungry, and we were about to be its breakfast.  Thank god Aaron had not turned and ran, as I am certain the bear would have reacted differently and immediately assumed he could kill and eat him.  So, fighting back and yelling at a big bear will eventually work, you just have to keep at it apparently.  Lesson learned.

Suffice it to say, after that event and of course with the annoyance of the aforementioned water purifier breakdown, it was an easy choice to get to paddling back to civilization and the security of a more crowded campground.  We returned to Dornan’s to turn in our canoe and determined to have lunch overlooking the cathedral group and revel in our good fortune.

We wound up back at Gros Ventre for a third night of camping and told our story to anyone who would listen.  We met three people our age from Santa Barbara who had just finished the Teton Crest Trail and has spotted a couple of black bears on their trek.  When visiting our famed western mountain parks, it really can’t be stressed enough that you need to be prepared for anything and everything.  After Glacier last year, and now the Tetons, we are continually humbled by what can, and will, go wrong when you’re out in the middle of nowhere.