Grizzly Experiences

[AvidIndoorsman]

Also, have had excited hikers in Colorado tell me multiple times they just saw a grizzly up the trail, but by the time I got there I only found a black bear, guess I always juuuust miss the griz.

I had a similar experience in Teton, except it was multiple people and 2 park rangers .

 

[Sytes]

Right now, you better be prepared to see a grizzly anywhere in Montana. My family has a farm North of Shelby. Not exactly classic bear habitat, but they are there. mtmuley

Between Sweetgrass and Shelby? Holy chit! Farmland, flatland country? Griz?
Was out there a couple months ago. I would think it was a prank to see such in that wind blown landscape.

If I heard this from others I would have called bull chit.

That is pretty darn amazing.

 

[Shortbowshot]

North Idaho 2yrs ago. Driving in on a logging road before light. Saw a clump of leaves and dirt in the road. We jumped out like idiots and found a 200# black bear freshly dead. We got spooked and left at that point. Later that day I called game and fish they gave us the hide to salvage. Upon skinning it was an unbelievable mess. The backbone and shoulders were crushed along with dozens of bite marks all over. The road was a mess of blood and hair for a large area along with a very large bed pawed out of the bank. It gave me a new respect for the power a Grizz has.

 

[Henry22]

Spent a week in Yellowstone/Teton area last August with some buddies hiking and exploring the area. Didn’t see a grizzly til the morning we were leaving from the Tetons. Had one eating berries about 100 yards off the road. Then got to see another one swim across a river about 300 yards from the first bear. It was a nice ending to a great trip.

 

[grizzly_]

We had a sow and two cubs turning rocks maybe 30 yards from us while stalking a bull in Wyoming. We let them move up the slope and continued the stalk and were able to get the bull, but they stole a backstrap we had set out to cool on the hillside away from the gut pile overnight. They had buried the carcass too but we had no issues getting the meat and horns back to camp that day and never saw the bears again. I suspect they were nearby and kept feeding on the bull when we left but didn't give us any problems.

 

[MTLabrador]

Right now, you better be prepared to see a grizzly anywhere in Montana. My family has a farm North of Shelby. Not exactly classic bear habitat, but they are there. mtmuley

They are. I’ve seen one a long ways down the Marias, and I’m waiting to see one on the Milk.

 

[Schaaf]

The coolest encounter I’ve had happened while hunting bears this spring. We spotted a very nice black bear and almost got a shot at him before he wandered off into the timber. That evening I came back and sat in the timber at the edge of a small park about 100 yards from where he had been feeding, hoping to wait him out. I noticed some new tracks that were postholing through the snow where his tracks that morning had stayed on top of the snow.

30 minutes later I was glassing and caught some movement out of the corner of my eye. I turned my head a bit and saw an XL boar grizzly standing 15-20 yards away shaking his head back and forth, sniffing the air. I stood up and pointed my rifle at him, and at the same time he stood up on his hind legs and locked eyes with me. Somehow the only words that came to mind were “I will shoot you in the F-ing face”. He dropped back down, woofed a few times at me, and turned around and walked off.

I’ve seen a few in Montana and Alaska. The only “close” call I had with one was in Alaska. He was getting a little too close to camp. I shot my Caribou that night very close to camp and he never came back around.

 

[Salmonchaser]

Two days ago

 

[GlockZ]

I had 2 experiences with grizzly bears, the first took place back in September of 2016, I was hunting the backcountry in Sunlight Basin and on one particular morning woke up to 3" of snow on the ground and grizzly tracks all around my tent, the second encounter took place last year in the same area, I was hiking a trail and came across fresh grizzly tracks, continuing on trail, the tracks disappeared and appeared to be going into the tree line away from the direction I was heading,( no problem there ), then about 300 yards down the trail, the trail went uphill and then took a sharp right and there 50' in front of me stood a grizz. His rear was towards me and he turned his head over his shoulder to look at me. We just stood there looking at each other for a few seconds and he turned and started to walk away from me off trail, I gave him a few minutes and continued on the trail, only to quickly realize that same grizzly was paralleling me 75 yards above me on the high ground, I checked my bear spray and my rifle and continued on, this went on for about a mile and a half before he veered off and went up and over the ridge and disappeared. That boar never showed any aggression towards me, and I am grateful for that.

 

[hank4elk]

2 in GNP and 1 in mtns near Basin,MT, where locals assured me there were no griz. I had been working with a surveyor in a creek area and saw some nice trout. Went back on my day off and one was working the stream bed. I left the area.
The ex had a close encounter hiking with gal group in GNP. I was not there but the pics and the fear in her voice that night said it all.

 

[mtmuley]

Between Sweetgrass and Shelby? Holy chit! Farmland, flatland country? Griz?
Was out there a couple months ago. I would think it was a prank to see such in that wind blown landscape.

If I heard this from others I would have called bull chit.

That is pretty darn amazing.

There are lots of bears on the Marias South of Shelby also. mtmuley

 

[BirdManMike]

I’ve luckily not had a close encounter but have seen some from a distance. I see fresh sign a lot quite often, too.

 

[BAKPAKR]

I saw a sow and a cub in North Idaho while spring bear hunting. I had a couple close encounters on the West side of the Hungry Horse Reservoir. One of those was along the trail eating huckleberries. It wasn’t too big and it didn’t get the excitement level up too high. The other one was a different story. I jumped it out of its bed and it was not too happy. It was big and it was huffing at me as I backed out of there.

I have also glassed a few bears at a distance that I thought could be grizzlies - one on the Idaho/Montana line a little south of I90 and two East of Hungry Horse.

I have also seen park bears in Banff and Glacier National Parks.

Park bears:

 

[406dn]

The most recent encounter was last week. I took a niece horseback riding in YNP. One ride was the Specimen Ridge trail. As we approached the upper end of Agate Creek, a large boar came out of the creek bottom and ran with purpose away from us.

He stopped, maybe two hundred yards away, looked back,,, spun around again and ran out of sight.

The last bull elk my brother killed included a grizzly finding the remains a couple of days after the kill. We had drug the remains out into a clearing, so other hunters would easily see it. The bear drug it back into the timber and buried it.

My horses have alerted me to some of the ones I've seen. Their alertness told me something was up. That same alertness has resulted in seeing deer, elk or moose. So when they tell me something is up, I believe it.

 

[crock239]

I've just seen one, a park bear in Yellowstone at a very safe distance.

Have a buddy who just got back from spring grizzly hunt in AK where they had a couple bears inside 20 yds while hunting from a popup ground blind....sounded pretty intense to me.

 

[Panda Bear]

We see grizzly, black, and polar's quite often. Occasionally a Glacier. One can see as many as 50 "ice" bears at one time, at Bear Cave Mtn. The ice bears are grizzly's who fish in that one spot late in the fall and the water freezes on them.

We have bear alert systems in towns and villages. Even a couple of bear prisons. Repeat offenders ( usually a polar ) will be tranquilized, put in a large building which has cells for each bear. He is sentenced to thirty days. After thirty days he is tranquilized again and taken way out onto the ice via a helicopter. He is also marked and if he returns he is sentenced to 60 days. If he returns again, one of us wears him

Usually dont hunt them, as we harvest a couple each year via DOLP. Usually a few anxious moments each year, but the dog, spray, and always attempting to be at least a smart as the bear, eliminates most encounters.

The one myth I would like to speak to is bears DO NOT always hibernate. You need to be bear prepared year around.

 

[kwyeewyk]

So far only one I've put eyes on was right at the East entrance to YNP from Cody on the return trip from my first WY cow elk hunt in Oct 2014, I saw grizzly tracks southwest of Cody on that trip. Thought I saw a track last fall in WY as well, but wasn't clear enough to be sure. The usual display of lack of intelligence by tourists (first photo was taken arm out the window at full zoom, I never got out like some were, second shot is out window as we drove by). Only other "experience" is with and 8 captive bears, roughly 100 hours over 5 semesters in an indoor/outdoor facility, only had one "mess" with me and show me how close he could get in a split second while cleaning his outdoor cage and had to spray him in the ear with the fire hose.

 

[Deleted member 20812]

I was backpacking in the alpine mountains of the CDT in the Bob, when I saw a giant sow with two cubs across the plateau. They absolutely glowed in the evening sun.

I have them what I thought was a wide berth before searching for water via headlamp. I pitched my tent and slept like a log. When I crawled out in the morning, the slope directly above me looked like it had been hit with a plow there was so much fresh bear dig activity. I try not to make a habit of camping in the bear cafeteria.

 

[Deleted member 20812]

There are lots of bears on the Marias South of Shelby also. mtmuley

The lower Marias and Teton are absolutely fantastic bear habitat.

 

[mtmuley]

The lower Marias and Teton are absolutely fantastic bear habitat.

Probly adds a new dimension to playing the Shelby golf course. mtmuley