hope you all feel loved and honored. Although I am kilted today most of the day will be spent on the sofa. Internet explorer changed last week or I guess updated and for some reason it wiped out all my family pictures on smugmug. Hundreds and hundreds of files. That is all I have been doing for a week and I'm only got 2020, 2019, and 2018 back on it. Luckily I had backed them all with my devices but it's going to be weeks before I get them all back on the net. So until them pray I don't have a fire I guess. Now for the pictures. My wife and I went to Grand Teton National park the last few days of May and first few of June then stayed with my daughter for a bit. I took my McKenzie, patched canvas, anderson both sportskilt and a utilakilt. It was a great few days except for the people. Most refused to wear masks and wouldn't social distance. I know it was outside which makes the virus less effective but as I explained to one obnoxious old guy (yea I know when you point a finger at someone there are 3 pointing back to you) If I have a sawed off shotgun and fire it at you at 300 yards you probably won't be worried but at 2 feet you'll have a different attitude. People were basically shoulder to shoulder which I do understand as a bear is a bear but then only maybe 5 per cent had masks. The park did set up alot of rules which I appreciated. masks required as well social distance. Rest rooms one person (or family group) at a time. Me in my anderson utilakilt The bears didn't disappoint. My big goal was 399 the oldest and probably most famous bear in GTNP. She had 4 cubs this year. Her litter about 20 years ago she lost to a boar but since then she has been successful in raising them to adulthood. This was her and the cub who apparently likes ballot There were about 200 people waiting for her near a place called Pilgrim Creek but my wife needed to hit the head so we drove north a few miles to the ranger station. when started back I noticed something in the trees to the north so insted turned and went that way about 100 yards and there they were. They had left pilgrims creek though the forest and come to find me apparently. It wasn't long until someone told the mob at Pilgrims she had given them the slip. Here she crosses the road We also saw (although at probably 200 yards) one of her previous children Blondie with her one cub. You can see it to the right with two of it's paws sticking up Here were two of Blondies kids who see booted last year. We had seen the family group the night before but in the morning Blondie was gone. We went down the dirt road and at the end there were the siblings. Two sadder bears I've never seen but I've never seen bears who has just been driven away by their mother. Anyway they are still together and we saw them quite a bit. Twiddle-dee the boar had had a bit of a tussle with a porcupine but luckily it looked like he wasn't hit in the eye. Hopefully they'll all work their way out. Here is his sister twiddle-dum. She shares the impressive claws of her brother and not a bad set of canines They pittered around the meadow for about an hour. Then wandered off into the woods. I put my camera down and started to walk away when they ran out of the woods like a bat out of hell. Looking back over their shoulders. Everybody was speculating what had scared them centered around a bigger bear. Bruno a large boar had been in the area but nothing ever showed and they carefully walked further east and left into a safer part of the woods.
She was 399's granddaughter by blondie. She had 2 2 year olds and apparently was in a bad mood. We had heard she had charged 4 different people the week before. One was a biker (bicycling seems stupid to me in bear country) two hikers who stumbled onto her, and two different groups of (rude) photographers. They were all bluff charges but the rangers were weary of her. I had gone to a little trailhead just off the road and as I pulled in she was walking down the trail toward the trail head. several cars had seen me pull off and followed me. one other person saw her. We stayed for abit anticipating they'd cross a meadow near by but after a bit I decided she had probably slipped away so left. I then found her in a big meadow down the road that connects to that area. Here one of the cubs had fallen behind and had to giddy-up Here is me in my McKenzie This may have been what scared twiddle-dee and twiddle-dum. as he was in the area and is pretty large for a black bear There was a young black bear near the ranger station I chanced upon one morning. He wasn't really angry but sneezed On the first day we saw a crowd (always a good indication) and there was a mother black bear and her 3 cubs. They had taken refuge in a tree while momma fed For those of you who like more domestic animals there is a dude ranch in the middle of GT and as I drove up to my bears the herd was in the river. Maybe my favorite
Moose on the river. A mom and her young son There were several fox. I really like fox Some coyotes an osprey nest A western Tanager And pronghorn
Liam
Happy Father's Day. Great Pics!
KD
Shinenotburn
Forum Rules
