John - Dances with Grizzlies

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John's Journal

Day Thirtyfour

Mileage- none

Route- in park and just outside it

Great day! Good night sleep with a great meal from the restaurant in Mammoth. It really was a fine dining experience. I had these basil roasted veggies and couscous that were the best I have ever had. I felt that I was back in SF for a moment, checking out some new place.

Actually felt as though I got a good night sleep last night, it was not that cold and was not rainy, either. I awoke to the usual camping sounds of people rustling about, packing up camps, making breakfast, etc. I turned over a few times, then got up and had a nice cup o' joe as the guy I met yesterday, Jeff came over. We ended up heading out together toward Cooke City to get some breakfast, maybe some sandwiches for lunch along a hike.

As we headed out of the campground, we got out to a road and saw the momma bear and cub I saw the day before. They were heading up to cross the road we just come off of, so we turned around and headed back up the wrong way. Sure enough, there they were heading right for us. I snapped some pictures with the window rolled down, then they came over to Jeff's side and he rolled up his window, turned the truck off and we watched as the momma came right up to the side and looked in at us. Unfortunately, MY window was still rolled down. "Window, please, uh, power, please," I asked nicely.

The bears then wandered off to the side a bit just off the road. The cub was extremely cute, very huggable. Even the momma seemed harmless, but we knew better. The baby seemed to capitalize on a free moment and climbed about 15 feet up a nearby tree. Then it climbed back down a bit, jumped the remaining 6 feet and scampered off with momma. There were 3 cars all stopped looking at these amazing creatures. Wow! So early in the day, too.

We had a great breakfast in Cooke City at the Pine Tree Cafe, where I had dinner. I walked in and Jim, the owner recognized me and was smiling. After that, we were out talking to the cook, Sandy's son, and a cute girl staying up behind the cafe, about where to go. The son mentioned a place down the road still outside of the park, called Crazy Creek. So we stayed out where the weather was sunnier and did this hike.

It was overcast in the park, we could see as we got higher up. This hike said it was 5 miles to Crazy Lake, but we never made it all the way there. Along the way, we hiked alongside these great falls, water moving very quickly. Most likely from all the snow they had this year. Did I tell you how much snow they have had this season? Just over 600 inches. That's right, over 50 feet cumulative. That's some snow. Anyway, this hike went uphill the whole way. Man, am I out of shape! But, each time you turn around, there were some wonderful views of the Absaroka range of the Rockies. These are the same ones that I kept seeing when I was coming in the other day.

We got up to near the top, decided that it was time to go back down and we noticed that the clouds over the park were rather ominous. Then we heard a thunder clap and looked up to really see the rain moving in, perhaps to our campsite. Bummer, it would not be fun to head back to a rainy campground. On the way down, we went off road a bit to get to the top of the falls and go back down that way. That was fun! It was not hard terrain to find a way, there were animal trails and other smaller people trails to follow. We got up to the rushing, raging, actually, water and came down alongside that for a while. It was great with all this cold, mountain water running down on top of, over, through, all around many fallen trees and some great rocks. I got some great pictures!

Then we went back to the Cafe for a late lunch. Sandy was glad to see us, no one else was in the place except for her and the cook. I had a fabulous bowl of chicken soup and a thick, rich, calorie-filled chocolate and Oreo Milkshake. Ahhh, that hit the spot!

On the way back in the park, we spotted many more animals. Herds of elk, several buffalo and even a Grizzly Bear (I capitalize his name because he deserves it). But the bear was way, way up on a cliff. But, we still wanted to go back to that Grizzly track we saw a few miles behind our campsite yesterday. Jeff wanted to make a print of some kind of the paw print, but had no plaster, so he took up some paper and sketched it. It looked bigger on paper than in the ground. Man, it is a big animal! Glad we didn't see the animal itself.

Then on the way back down, we walked 2 steps off the fire road and smelled this awful, awful smell. Something dead. Sure enough, a dead elk just laying ther. It couldn't have been very old, there was still some meat on it. That got us wondering if some animals would come around looking for food. And being so close to our campground, would they come around here, too?

You'll find out in the next story titled:

• B.M.W.- Bear Mauls Whiteboy
• or
• How Fast Can John Start That Motorcycle?