I clearly remember the first bear I saw in the wild ( well at least the first time as an adult anyway). My husband and I were on our first trip to Yellowstone National Park together. We had both been before but as children so this was sort of like a first for both of us. I remember being so excited to go but also having no clue what to do, where to stay, or what to expect. There was definitely some nervous excitement going on. I had asked friends for all the tips and planned the best I could for what I knew.
I honestly had no idea how many animals were in the park. I was just like any of the first time tourists you would expect to see. We drove up this long road lined with a million trees. We saw a raging river and then some interesting hot springs, an elk, and a gorgeous lake. As we traveled up the road toward the north end of the park, we saw a sign. It warned us of the danger of bison. I got excited. If there is a sign there must be some chance to see one right? Shortly there after we saw something. It was on the other side of the river and it looked sort of like a huge rock. It wasn’t moving. It wasn’t close, and still I was sure it was something. My husband pulled over and we got out the binoculars ( yep scoping out the bison). Sure enough we found one! I was thrilled with our discovery. I look back now and laugh at how excited we were to see one bison far in the distance. If you have never been to Yellowstone, you may not understand the humor in my excitement.
We drove on after watching this big guy do absolutely nothing for quite awhile. As we headed up around the next bend, we came to a place called Hayden Valley. As soon as the road turned into this valley we saw literally hundreds of these amazing and beautiful Bison. They covered the hillside to our left. We came to a parking spot that was rather full of other visitors. I mean there were cars sort of everywhere but we were lucky to get a spot to pull into. Then we saw it. This beautiful grizzly grazing in the valley on the opposite side of the road. He was digging at the ground and eating as he walked. The crowd got bigger and crazier. There were drivers who were so impatient. Slow drivers were trying to catch a glimpse of what everyone was looking at. One driver just decided to go off-roading into the dirt and bushes, on the side of the bear and fly past everyone.
As we watched this bear, that you could see with your naked eye, I couldn’t help but wonder if this person had even seen it. I mean it couldn’t have been 150 yards away from the road at the time ( honestly I’m horrible at distance but I’m guessing a little more than a football field away). Had he or she been in such a rush they had missed it or were they so used to it that they didn’t care anymore? We had just seen a bison and I was stoked but then we came to the next spot and saw hundreds of them. Maybe that was the way it was for this driver and they just became numb to the excitement.
We continued to watch this beautiful animal. There were tons of people and several rangers making sure people stayed a safe distance away. I mostly stayed right by my car door so I could jump in at any time he decided to try to come eat me. ( I have a very healthy fear of bears). I remember snapping about a million pictures. At the time I had my canon rebel t3i i think. I was shooting with a 75-300 mm kit lens.
This amazing animal got to a point in his journey were he wanted to go “play” with the bison across the road. You could see he was getting a bit anxious because of the amount of people and cars in his way. I mean the road was lined with people safely parked, not so safely parked on the side of the road ( but not totally off the road), people who were “driving” but really not moving anywhere ( some because the were watching and others because the couldn’t go anywhere due to the stopped traffic). Where there weren’t cars, there were people…people who were trying to keep creeping closer to get a better shot.
At one point this guy stood straight up to try to find a way across the road. I got this shot. He eventually made it to the other side were he tried to chase the bison around a bit. Finally he realized he was no match for a whole heard of these 6 ft tall, 1500 lb animals with horns. He wandered off, no doubt to find somewhere away from people and to look for his next meal.
While I was excited to have witnessed the whole entire thing, I still had lots of negatives going through my head. What was that drivers deal? It honestly still bugs me and this was in May of 2015. I also, couldn’t help but wish I had owned a better camera, and a better lens. I was struggling to allow myself to just be happy with what I had and what I saw and what my husband and I had experienced together. We continued our journey and I silently sort of stewed. We saw many more bears that day and heards and heards of bison. We saw antelope and elk. We saw roughly a million ( probably exaggerating a bit) canadian geese.
We stopped the next day to get souvenirs and mostly ice cream, from a gift shop. I stood behind a cute older couple who were talking to the cashier about how they have been coming to Yellowstone for about 8 years and had never seen a bear. In my head I was shocked. We had been in the park 2 day and had seen like 9 bears I think. In that moment I think I checked the attitude of wishing I had more at the door. Do I think this is my best bear image I’ve shot? Absolutely not. Would it have been awesome to have better gear at the time this bear decided to put on the show. Of course! However, I have this image. I was in this moment with what I had and it is a way cooler shot and memory than the ding dong who flew past it all and missed out. This image brings me back to this time and all the excitement of making memories with my husband.
I learned a lot of lessons from this experience. I learned to be grateful for experiences we are blessed with even if things could have been better. I learned to keep my eyes open so that I don’t miss some of the beautiful moments just off the road, or maybe just waiting for me to slowdown. I learned that sometimes like my friend here, the path to get where we want to go, is hard and thick. Sometimes we need to stretch and see it from a better vantage point. I learned that things aren’t always better on the other side but that you wont know unless you try. I learned that being in the right place at the right time is sometimes as important as all the planning in the world.
I don’t just love wildlife and nature because they are pretty. I love it for the lessons it can teach me. I love it for the time it gives me to reflect and ponder. My husband has patiently taken me back to Yellowstone every year since this visit and I feel like it is ever changing and ever teaching. I have a soft spot because of this first visit we had there together but it’s not just Yellowstone filled with lessons, they are everywhere we are open to learning them.