Lion, Tigers, and Bears...Oh my!

I just got back from traveling to the East side of Idaho and into Wyoming to conduct our annual inventory at our dams: Minidoka, American Falls, Ririe, Palisades, and Jackson. We do this in three days, it is a lot of driving, but it is a beautiful drive. We stay one night in Alpine, WY and then one night in Jackson Hole, WY. Jackson Dam is located in the Teton National Park. We lucked out and had beautiful weather and even got done with our inventory with enough time to do a little shopping in Jackson Hole (Yeah). We saw the usual Bald Eagles, Buffalo, Elk, Deer, and Moose. We received a special treat this year: a Grizzly. We had just entered the park and fellow employee, Trina, had never seen a wild bear and was oh-so-hoping to see one. We turned a corner and saw this lighter color fur through the trees and at first thought it might be another elk, but as we got closer we realized it was a bear. We of course pulled over and got out to take pictures. (Joined in with all the other stupid tourists.) I'm not great with distances or measurements, Spencer always has to hold his hands out to show me, but they say we were about 20 yards away.





We all know that when one car stops, pretty soon there are a google of cars all pulled over. The bear was foraging around eating grass, grubs or something. He decided to cross over the road. It was so cool to watch this bear. He was crossing the road right between the parked cars and all the not-so-smart tourists with their cameras. All of a sudden, a truck pulled up and started honking its horn. The bear took off in a run into the brush. We were all a little irritated with this driver before we realized it was a park ranger. Guess they don't think it is too safe or smart to get that close to the bears. We think it was a three year old because our Dam tender, Larry, has had a momma bear with three cubs hanging around and just that week, she swatted them away. Larry has become quite familiar with this momma bear and has been charged and snorted at by her. He claimed after that encounter, he had to go change shorts.

It was a pretty cool trip. I realized that this was the first time that I had ever been away from Amelia. I have to admit, that it was a little hard to leave, but I knew she was in good hands with her daddy. He had a little bit of an adventure with her: one night she woke up three times, he forgot Pooh Bear (very traumatic) and a sippy cup one day, was forced to take off his boots and be the only dad in Tumble Time, and wasn't able to get as much work done as he would have liked (we all know what it is like to try and accomplish work with little ones...doesn't happen). Overall, I think it was a good daddy and daughter bonding time for the two of them. She cracks me up, she will walk behind and mimic him as he is talking on the phone pacing between the kitchen and the living room. She defiantly loves her daddy.