Watching and waiting for a grizzly bear to do something takes patience. We watched this big male slowly work its way across a large field with a stream running through it. He eventually made his way over to the stream, I assumed to get a drink.
Or maybe he wanted some duck for breakfast.
You’ve seen this big fellow before. The first full day inside Yellowstone, I decided to drive down to the Lamar Valley. Many people had told me about the Lamar Valley because of my interest in photographing wildlife. I set out from my campsite as the sun rose, hoping I would get to Lamar before the best light of the day was gone. On my way I passed several fields which had been filled with bison the day before. The bison had withdrawn deep into the fields, so I hadn’t planned to stop for photos until I saw this big grizzly walking though the field. It is the first grizzly I’ve ever seen.
Adult males will weigh about 400 to 800 pounds (180 to 360 kg), while females are about half as much. Standing on its hind legs a large male will be as high as ten feet (3 meters). Known for ferociousness, they are the largest of North America’s predators to make their home in the United States. You can tell a grizzly from other bears by the distinctive hump between its front shoulders. Other bears, such as, black bears, brown bears and polar bears do not have this hump.
Over the next few days I will be posting more images of grizzly bears. They include images of grizzlies eating a bison, and wolves watching them. I also have photos of a female grizzly that I got much too close to, but decided to photograph her anyway because she was there and so was I.
In the photograph below you can see two brown shapes. The one on the right is a dead bison. How he died? I do not know. The brown shape to the left is a full-grown grizzly approaching for breakfast.
Over the next several days many hundreds if not thousands of people gathered to watch the spectacle as grizzlies, wolves, birds and other carrion gathered to feast on this dead bison.
A typical conversation about me usually gains a response something like this, “Oh, you’re a morning person.” Followed by either a shaking head, rolling eyes or both. What can I say? I love morning light. I think it is the best light of the day to shoot in and the critters are the most active then. So my day begins at least by 6:00 AM and I’m generally done shooting by 9:30 AM.
Sometimes that isn’t early enough. This big grizzly bear had already been down to the river for his morning drink, crossed over the road I was on and was walking away from the road when I got there just before 7:00 AM.
Of course being away from my camper so early has proven to have its disadvantages too. While I was away, the morning I saw this grizzly bear, someone stole the flagpole from the front of my camper. Seriously, you didn’t have to steal it. If you needed it that badly, I would have given it to you.
The Trail 
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