Bear spotting ...

View of the Rockies from the horse paddock

As I mentioned yesterday, the property we visited on the weekend is prime bear country.  R, C's cousin, has hundreds of bear stories to tell and I could listen to them for hours on end.  On Saturday evening, we headed out for a wander to find a bear or two.  There was a dead cow on the property, so we headed in that direction (at a safe distance of course!) and waited.  Eventually, we heard a noise on the hill and R identified it as a bear noise.  Sure enough, a few minutes later, a HUGE grizzly bear appeared out of the bushes and made its way to the dead cow.  Just behind it was its baby cub.  I was so excited, I could barely stand still.  For the next 15-20 minutes, we watched (through the binoculars) the mama bear communicating with her cub (kind of a grunting noise), eating the dead cow flesh and even rolling in it.  Eventually, it got too dark to watch any longer and R was concerned about how close we were (about 300 metres and bears can run up to 30km/hr), given that the bear had looked up at us several times.  It was a truly special experience to see a bear in the 'real' wild, doing what they do naturally.  I felt extremely lucky to have had that experience.

C and his cousin on the look out for bears

There's a bear in there ...

Unfortunately, my DSLR's battery died and I only had my 'little' camera, so I was unable to take a picture of the bear.  You'll just have to believe my story!