"Now, why don't he write?"

Day 2:

   I know it has been a while, but there isn't much internet service camping. So day two was a lot of fun. We left Rawling, WY early and drove about 4 hours up to Grand Teton National Park. The drive was fun since everywhere you look it you could see pronghorn and we also saw some mule deer (two bucks and two does). We even saw a coyote and got some pictures of it. Along the way, there was some very cool rock formations. Some that were vivid red and also a couple that had a purple strip through them that was gorgeous. After hitting some road construction as we got closer to the Teton's, we finally made it to an over look and you could see them in all their amazingness. We reached the park a short while after that and stopped at another lookout to view the mountains with a river in the foreground. The valley had no wind, so we were able to get a mirror image of the mtns. on the river. After pulling ourselves away from that spot we made it to our campground and got a spot. We quickly put up our tent and headed back out to explore the park. The first spot we went was to a hiking trail that led up towards Grant Teton mtn. which was supposed to be prime spot to see bear. Within a few minutes of hiking we came across hikers coming down who said that there was a bear up ahead. Excited, we trudged up the steep path. More hikers confirmed that the bear was there. We got closer and came across another set of hikers, after inquiring about the bear they told us that it had scampered away. We were disappointed but the day was still early. We hiked for about an hour more before we decided that we should just go back down. The hike down was much easier than the hike up (imagine that!!), but we still had to be careful of where we stepped b/c the path had lots of rocks on it. As we approached the area that the bear had been last spotted I took a quick glance over, but didn't see anything. Less than thirty seconds later Nathan (who was walking behind me) said, "Zach, Zach, Zach! Bear!" I immediately stopped in my tracks and looked left. Sure enough, 15 yards away, behind some trees, was a BEAR!!!!!!!!

To be continued later!

Two seconds later. :D We quickly backed away, giving the black bear plenty of space.   We were in no danger though since the bear didn't pay us any attention, it was too busy eating berries, but it is always good to be safe rather than sorry. It started to approach the path. We backed up even more. By then, another hiker caught up to us and said that he was going to climb up the hill to our right and by-pass it. We thought that was a good idea and followed him. As we got to the other side, we stopped about 20 yards away and got pictures and video. It was right next to the path at this point. A couple of ladies came down the path. After several attempts, I finally got their attention and told them that there was a bear right next to the path. After stopping for a couple of seconds, they dumbly decided to tell it to shoo as they kept walking down the path. Luckily, the bear backed away and didn't attack them. After another hiker passed by, the bear made it to the path and decided to sit there for a few seconds. It then continued to eat berries on the path. After several minutes of watching it, we decided we should get going back to the bottom. The rest of the trip was uneventful. We then continued to a few more look out spots to see the Tetons, and also to a famous barn where lots of pictures were taken of it with the mtns. in the background. At that part of the park we saw our first buffalo. There was a herd of them grazing in prairie grass. As dusk approached we headed back to our campsite. Along the way we came across a car parked on the side of the road (normally a sign of animals). We drove past but didn't see anything, but decided to turn around and double check. Good thing we did, 30 yards away was another black bear eating berries. We stopped for several minutes and watched it. In that time, a bunch of cars had stopped and there was a bear jam on the road. That is always fun to watch. After a while, the bear disappeared into the woods and we were left to get back to our tent. We grabbed some hotdogs and roasted them over a fire and then crawled into our tent for our first night camping under the Wyoming sky (sadly it was cloudy most of the night so we only got to see the stars for a short time). 

End of day 2.

More posts about yellowstone coming soon! 

P.S. If you didn't get the title, its from the movie Dances with Wolves.