I recently had the great pleasure to spend most of a week in and around Jackson, Wyoming. Jackson is just south of Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks in an intermountain valley. Most of the land is public, including the National Elk Refuge, National Forest, and wilderness areas.
Land is expensive and housing is limited. No surprise then that my friend in Jackson lives in a 2.1 million dollar house. He built the house himself and with an eye to the aesthetic. That’s the NE view above. I wouldn’t describe my friend as wealthy, rather as responsible. I use similar strategies to survive in Iowa in my $35,000 house. (Pay bills on time, maintain and leverage good credit, eat healthy food, and recreate) Here’s the NW view:
We spent a night camped on Elk Island. It is a large and beautiful forested island replete with wildlife and lapped by the waves of Jackson Lake. Our campsite was above a sheltered cove and populated by a particularly friendly deer couple. Here’s the buck at sunset:
And as he went off to bed:
Of course we all figured that with the deer so casual around us there would no bears. I found out that we were wrong the next morning when a grizzly bear came to the camp for morning coffee.
I am an early riser. My wife and I had slept on the boat along with two kids and two other adults. The two teens were in a tent above the campfire pit. I got up an hour or so before sunrise and went to shore to make coffee. My fire was blazing in moments and I gazed into it and warmed my hands as my coffee water rapidly approached the boil.
Nothing in particular caused me to look up but when I did I saw a large head about 100 feet away, right about where the deer is in the last photo. My thought process went canine, wolf, no… bear. My heart pounded. His head and forearms were sticking out of the brush and he was sniffing the air and scratching his butt against a fallen log.
I considered the teens in the tent but I immediately decided to leave them sleeping. My next thought was to go to the boat before the bear noticed me. That’s what I decided to do but as my eyes passed the coffeepot I realized my own priority. So I lifted the pot off the fire, added the appropriate amount of fair trade organic Sumatran grounds to make a gourmet pot of cowboy coffee, capped the pot, grabbed my pack, and didn’t wait to see where the bear was before turning and walking down to the boat.
At the boat I had the options of boarding for my own safety, waking the skipper for his experienced advice, or grabbing my camera in one hand and a big club like stick in the other and going back towards the fire and bear. Of course I chose the latter.
As I first came back in sight of the critter, who was in our camp by then, I got this shot off:
I was more than a little nervous so I didn’t get a good shot although I snapped a couple more. With him in the camp I couldn’t do much of anything so I went back to the boat and woke up my friend. He joined me on shore and we stayed quietly in the brush and watched the bear continue his rounds. I’m not at all jumpy but I don’t have nerves of steel. My best bear picture clearly reveals my nervousness. Here it is:
The bear soon disappeared into the woods. Disappointed perhaps that he could not find a cup to enjoy my morning brew. My oldest child and I went for a walk later and found where the bear had slept and several piles of his scat which consisted almost entirely of sawdust and insect remains.