Re: Bear Pics

Poll

Have you seen a bear in Yosemite?

Only registered users are allowed to vote for this poll.
39 votes were received.

Never	7		18%
Only Once	3		8%
2-3 Times	7		18%
4-5 Times	2		5%
5-7 Times	3		8%
More than I can count!	17		43%

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I've been lucky enuf to get a picture of a bear (or two) on every trip to Yosemite since 2008 ('09, '10, and just this week '11) I'd love to see other's pics of bears in Yosemite and am willing to post some of mine... but wanted to ask first if anyone else has bear pics? It's kinda my goal every year to get a bear picture since being attacked by a bear as a kid in Yosemite... now I "hunt" them (with my camera only, of course) though its only luck for the most part. It's kinda scary and fun all at the same time... but I've never become bear lunch yet! ) (a telephoto helps with that!)

Bear photo's anyone?

I spent a lot of time with this bear on the road to Yosemite Creek Campground:


http://yosemitephotos.net/main.php/v/yosemite/cm-p8030043.jpg.html

These are the best pictures I have, and it took me quite a few trips to Yosemite and bear picture attempts to get them.
The problem with getting bear pictures for me was I usually saw them during the night, when it's dark, and hard to get good pictures.

The sad fact is that this bear was most likely put down sometime after these pictures were taken.
These were taken on JMT before the first bridge, i.e. one of the busiest trail sections in the park.

He as begging for food and obviously associated humans and their backpacks with food. Every time I put my camera backpack down to get the camera out he would aggressively start approaching me. My assumption is he was going to snatch the backpack. I had to grrrrr loudly at him and bluff charge him to get to run away, after which I grabbed my backpack and ran. This happened a couple of times, he kept coming back. All of this during a bear mob as everyone was busy taking pictures. Crazy!

He looks to be a young bear and not in the best of health. He looks thin and there was something going on with his mouth/tounge hanging out. He might have been desperately hungry!

Later in the day I tracked down a ranger in the valley and reported him. This was very un-natural behavior for a bear and leads to no good for man or animal!

Show me yours and I'll show you mine?

Seen a bazillion bears. Most run their butts off long before can get a camera out.
(happened again last wkend)
Only case I got a decent photo of a wild bear was when mama came back due
to baby zigging up a tree. All others were backpacker bears.

That being said I like to just run them up a tree:

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Picasa Pictures

This reminds me of one I took back in 1988 in LYV. We were setting up camp and the summer ranger came by and asked us to move and pointed upward.

Cool! Here is my first bear pic! I've gotten some awesome pics, but I was hesitant to post them, as I didn't want to discourage others from posting! That's why I asked before posting. I have quite a few really good shots... the first is always the favorite, it was just a special moment.



On the way out of Yosemite we saw some people pointing at something, and one of the guys in my van jokingly said, “It’s a bear!” And it was! Guys started jumping out of the van while it was still moving, but since I was driving, I had to find a place to pull over. When I was parked, I took the risk of changing to my telephoto lens, I just had a feeling I might get lucky after having missed out on any bear pics the whole trip. Then as I jumped out of the van, I realized I was way behind the crowd running toward the bear with their cameras, and got this crazy idea to simply run in the other direction! I knew all I was going to get at this rate was the rear ends of a bunch of tourists and a brown blur. So I ran deep into the woods and then circled around hoping that the bear might run toward me as it fled the others trying to get his picture. I knew there was a chance that with this strategy I might never even get to SEE the bear, let alone photograph it, but it all happened so fast, I was operating on instinct. (Or insanity?) Sure enough, as I hid behind a fallen log with my camera ready, I saw the bear running toward me! As I raised my camera it jumped up in a tree and I got several pictures before he jumped and ran off in the other direction.

I'll post more after a few others post some more! Keep 'em coming! These were great!



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/22/2011 11:28PM by YosemiteHiker44.

Posted this one before.... another backpacker bear:


p.s. I'm prolly not the only one who highly questions the
"since being attacked by a bear as a kid in Yosemite" ... so please ... the story...

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Picasa Pictures

OK, with 221 views and only 5 votes, I think some people are viewing and not voting.

It doesn't include the words Half Dome or Death in it...

Here's other bear photos I've posted in the past:
http://yosemitenews.info/forum/read.php?3,27686

Or how about this one:

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Picasa Pictures

Quote
chick-on
It doesn't include the words Half Dome or Death in it...

Here's other bear photos I've posted in the past:
http://yosemitenews.info/forum/read.php?3,27686

Or how about this one:

I've been wanting something like that for car camping.

When walking up 4 mile in June, ran into two bears on the trail--caught me a bit by surpise and with little light (abt 6:45am or so), not the best picture (hiker that caught up to me said he saw 4):

Those bears have collars on. One must be Yogi!

And here's another at Muir Woods--Scoob training for the Derby.

Here's "Orange 59", in Leidig Meadow, April 2010. According to Jeffrey at the NPS, she's a female that was two years old at the time.

I'm guessing she might have picked up the scent of the fresh Degnan's deli sandwich that was in the front cargo pocket of my pants.

I understand that the NPS likes to know of any and all bear sightings - yose_web_manager@nps.gov.

I once walked upon a baby bear trash can diving in Huff House employee housing. Was going to the bathrooms at about 2 in the morning and almost walked upon it. Only thing that kept me from running into the bear was some people who were sitting outside at the tables.

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-Daren

My Flickr Stream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/yosemite_climber/

A yearling cub about a mile upstream from Glen Aulin a couple weeks ago.

Saw this small bear on Aug 5, 2011 about 30 feet from the south west corner of the Hemlock Building of the Yosemite Lodge (adjacent to the bike path), about 8 AM. He was in an apple tree eating apples. Not a great picture, but it looked like he was going to be there for a while and we had places to go so I didn't feel like waiting around for a better shot. There were a dozen or so lodge guests, many in pajamas, all around taking pictures.

What ever happened to knocking off all the flower blooms off in spring so the apples don't form?
Somewhere in the past I heard they were doing that as an anti-bear nuisance measure.

I have posted this one before...but it's a favorite, so here it is again. My first backpacking trip with my boys..August 1999 at Glen Aulin backpacker's camp:

Love it! This pic is amazing! Bet your boys talk about this like it was yesterday!

man, I feel jealous that some of you caught some sharp pics of the bears

this is the best one I (my buddy) caught

HAHA!!! Tha one wit tha boys is great!

Can you finish the story of the one with the boys? What did they do and did the bear keep advancing toward them? That bear looks kind of serious about something.

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madmxe
Can you finish the story of the one with the boys? What did they do and did the bear keep advancing toward them? That bear looks kind of serious about something.

Actually there is the start of the story that I have to tell first..it was my first backpacking trip with my kids, ages 10 and 8 at the time. After much research, trying to find something that would be in Yosemite, far enough away from the road to legally camp but close enough to not have it be too far or too steep for them to hike (you gotta keep it fun with the kids!), I had decided to go from the Murphy Creek trailhead up Murphy Creek a few miles and then cross country a half mile or so to Polly Dome Lakes. It was perfect...fairly short and not much elevation gain. We got a good start and had a problem free hike into the lakes and set up camp, did a little scrambling on rocks and I was getting dinner ready when we watched a guy camping about 200 yards away get into trouble swimming, and, eventually, drown.

After we pulled the guy out of the water, my 10 year old (on the left in the picture) and a 13 year old with the other group were told to stay together and get back to the trailhead to tell what had happened and summon help, while I and the victim's brother in law attempted resuscitation. I kept my 8 year old busy yelling for help. Another solo hiker came along about half an hour later and I took off with my 8 year old for the trailhead, hoping that my earlier decision to send the two boys off alone didn't create a second incident. As we were about halfway back to the trailhead I saw a chopper coming in from the Valley so I knew the kids had probably made it out OK, and they had, doing a great job for which I was quite proud, and grateful (and btw the victim did not make it...see "Death in Yosemite" 8/13/99...yes, the last Friday the 13th of the last millenium...weird, eh?).

So anyway, after spending a night with the rangers at Tuolumne Meadows, I was ready to head home, but the boys convinced me to give it another try....wanting to "sleep under the stars", and thankfully they talked me into it. We had basically abandoned our camp at Polly Dome the evening before, so we had to hike back there to collect our stuff (which was just as we left it, fortunately) and I had told the kids that I didn't want to spend the night there (and I haven't to this day been back) so we continued on to Glen Aulin, where we had a great night and where the bear visited us early the next morning.

So to (finally) answer your question...I was awake making breakfast at probably 6am when the bear showed up, making his rounds. He sniffed around the tent in the background (who occupants were I am sure still asleep) and then off to the right behind the trees in the background of the picture, and then, really wanting to get to me and the breakfast, came up the cleft in the rock, arriving near the boys feet. I had, of course, awakened the kids to see the bear a bit earlier. So they watched the bear come towards them as I took the picture, and then they said "...Daddy!..." and I took a step towards the bear and stomped my feet and it ran away towards the blue tent and around towards the left, back towards me, as I scrambled to get my foodstuffs back in the bear can. So when the bear finally got to my kitchen area, it sniffed around, couldn't get any easy breakfast from me, and continued merrily on its way.

And the best part about the whole thing is that the kids not only learned some valuable lessons about what can go wrong in the wilderness, they also stuck with the trip despite its tough start, and to this day when we talk about that trip the first recollection is not about a guy who drowned, but about how much fun it was sleeping under the stars... and the bear!

Wow, now that is a memory. Thanks for sharing it. Beats the hell out of Little League eh.

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madmxe
Wow, now that is a memory. Thanks for sharing it. Beats the hell out of Little League eh.

Well we had a lot of that as well.