July 9, 1999

BEAR IN THE MEADOW

We've just completed our first week of work. Actually, the job is a bit trying, working with people that want to get checked into their campsite, working on an old, and cumbersome computer system. On Wednesday, I left work at noon and rode my bike to West Thumb, a geyser basin on the lake three miles west of here. We finished work at 3:00 o'clock today (Sunday) and will go back to work at 2:00 on Wednesday.

Yesterday, as we were lounging around the house, a man told us there was a grizzly in the meadow near the entrance to our RV park. We hurried down to the meadow and sure enough, there was a big bear grubbing near some small trees. As a crowd gathered to watch, the bear totally ignored us. We watched and took pictures for about an hour. At times the bear got within 100 feet of us. (We had cars ready to retreat into if necessary.) Gina was very excited to see her first bear in the wild. We added the grizzly to list of wildlife that we've seen in the park. We saw a moose earlier in the week. We had driven down to Lake Lewis, a campground on a very pretty lake ten miles south of here. After playing around the lake and nearby waterfalls, we started home, and there stood a bull moose about 200 feet from the road.

We don't have firm plans for our weekend (Monday and Tuesday). We want to see some falls on a river about 30 miles north of here. There are beautiful hikes on both side of the canyon called Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. The Yellowstone River runs through the canyon and forms two sets of falls, Upper Falls, and Lower Falls. We have also looked at some short day hikes in our area. We really need to go to Jackson, eighty miles south, to a grocery store. The camp store has enough to get by, but at very high prices.

Just heard someone say the bear is in the meadow again. I ride by bicycle to work and back, and felt a little uneasy going by the meadow and through a mile of woods. I hope that the grizzly will behave herself.