Grizzly Watching - Part 1

As we drove the Mount Washburn-Dunraven Pass road today, we saw the grizzly sow and her cubs on the east side of the road on the south side slope. She was below the hiking trail to the top. She was doing her grizzly thing, turn over rocks and looking for grubs. We could tell that most of the hikers were unaware of their proximity to the grizzly. There had been a ranger in the area all morning giving looks through his scope.



We noted that as the grizzly stayed very near the trail, another park worker hiked up the trail and stopped the downhill traffic.



Cars were going slowly as people were checking out the view of the grizzly. I saw this lady taking movie shots as her RV passed by. It was not too long before I saw them going back the other direction. It was a LARGE RV - they must have turned around in the parking lot just above. I would not want to be trying to turn around a vehicle that large in that kind of traffic on a mountain road, even with the parking lot.



Her view would have been something like this as the bear appeared and reappeared in the trees above.

The grizzly finally headed downhill and over in our direction. The ranger's voice took on an authoritative tone - back to your cars, professional photographers can stay with me. I stayed with him briefly, but as it appeared obvious that the bear was going to cross the road, I did head over and set up next to the jeep. I was definitely feeling a little blind because I could not see where the bear was. Then came the call: "She's coming up!" And there she was - very close to my car.




I shot a round of shots - head shots with my lens at the 800mm length.





She climbed up just above us and started grubbing and still moving closer to us.




Henry is insistent, "Get in the car!" One or two shots more and I'm glad to oblige. She is all too close.


In retrospect, I was very impressed with how carefully the rangers orchestrated this crossing. They made sure there was a clear path - no people or passing cars to block her way across. While we were certainly not the legal 100 yards from her, she did have a clear path to get where she wanted to go without feeling threatened. The rangers had actually blocked the vehicular traffic when it was obvious she was going to cross. I have no idea how far the traffic was backed up, but when they did start letting people drive through there was certainly a large number of slow moving vehicles. The person directing traffic kept telling people to take their pictures, but keep moving - no stopping. I could not get to my lens or my camera to use the 100-400 to take photos of her as she worked her way above me, but we still had a great sighting.

As I thought about this afterwards, I pretty much decided that I don't think I'm cut out to be a bear photographer. Bear photos sell well, so when there is the likelihood of a good sighting, you have a lot of people out there all lined up with their big lenses. In Yellowstone, once the bear is sighted and the crowd starts growing, a ranger shows up. Just when the bear is getting into a position where you might get the shot you are hoping for, the ranger tells you that you must move. In this case when I first decided to get in the car rather than stay with the other photographers that were moving up and down the road, the bear was totally out of my sight. So then, when she does cross, she may be much closer than you bargained for. When I come across a jam that is already in full swing, I take a look at all the cars and all the people and it is a little overwhelming. I don't particularly want to struggle to get a good position or feel frustrated because I'm down on the far end of the pack because I got there "late." Plus, bears are a little hard to photograph. They have thick eyelashes that make getting a good clear image of their eye very difficult. An animal really comes to life in a photo when you can get a clear view of their eyes, the details and the catchlight. Those eyelashes make the catchlight nonexistent. Also, the grizzly bear is a LARGE animal and the eyes are very small. Lastly, when this bear finally came into view as it came up onto the road, I had only an instant to focus and shoot and hope my exposure (that I had tested) was accurate. I was lucky this time, at least two of those shots seem to work. But to get those two shots, we were there several hours. I'm not sure the risk-reward and the time factor works well here. Plus you are jammed packed with all these people. I prefer situations where the number of people is smaller and where I can predict more accurately when and where to go to find the animal.

P.S. Thanks to Henry for letting me use his photos to further illustrate this blog.