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Grizzly Bear

Ursus arctos

We've been on vacation in Yellowstone a number of times.  We've been in Alaska on vacation.  We've seen bears, including some relatively close views of Black Bears. We've seen Grizzly Bears, but only from a distance.  This isn't from a distance!  We visited Banff National Park in the summer of 2016, and we were told by our B&B hosts that it was a good year for bear sightings.  There was a very large crop of berries in a certain kind of bush that tended to grow in disturbed or semi-open areas, including along the edges of forests and along roadsides. On August 2nd, we decided to drive the Bow Valley Parkway, a lovely little drive through Banff National Park.  It didn't take long before we came across a mini bear jam of a few cars, pulled alongside the road. Knowing how it worked in Yellowstone and other places, we assumed there was some wildlife that was being observed, so we slowed down and pulled in behind the last of the few cars.  At first we didn't see anything, but soon a great lumbering beast of a Grizzly Bear came slowly sauntering out from the edge of the forest.  It then stopped, plopped itself down by a set of bushes, and proceeded to eat for the next 10 minutes, stripping berries by the mouthful from the loaded bushes.  On that one day along the Bow Valley Parkway, we ended up seeing 7 individual bears, 6 of which were Grizzly Bears!  Many times they were at incredibly close range, only 20-30 feet from the road.  They were paying attention to the few people that were on the road and would stop, but they weren't letting people get in the way of their gorging.  So wonderful to see such a beautiful, massive, wild creature at such close range, behaving in a quite natural manner.