When I was working with a Kenyan outdoor coach on Wyoming's Wind River Range two decades ago, he surprised me one day by saying, "Walking here feels like a walk in the park."
With armed guards, he is accustomed to moving through the wild places in Africa that are full of dangerous animals. He said he always felt sober on those trips, but in the Wyoming wind? We will not be threatened by any squirrel bigger than the squirrel seeking GORP.
But now, grizzlies are back in the Wind River Range, a 100-mile chain of rocky peaks southeast of Yellowstone National Park. Big Bears once owned the West, and now they're reclaiming some of their traditional lands.
The sudden sounds get me started. I don't like being alone unless I have a clear view of my surroundings. I don't wander in the dark on my own. However, being in bear country feels energizing.
At its peak, as many as 50,000 grizzly bears roamed the western United States. By the time the Endangered Species Act was passed in 1975, their numbers had dwindled to less than 1,000 in the Lower 48, and they inhabited only 2% of their former range there. Only 220 to 320 grizzlies were thought to be living in the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem at the time of listing.
Once protected, grizzlies trees expanded outside the park and are now found throughout the area. For me, that makes a difference. It's not just that I carry bear spray and store my food in bear-proof containers, or that I make noise when I hike in areas of low visibility. It's subtle: you've become hyper-conscious.
The sudden sounds get me started. I don't like being alone unless I have a clear view of my surroundings. I don't wander in the dark on my own. However, being in bear country feels energizing.
"The bears are what makes a place wild for me," says Barb Cestero, who directs the Wildlife Society's Greater Yellowstone and High Divide Landscape Program in Bozeman, Montana. “It's about being, in the moment, alive, and realizing that you have to avoid surprising the bear and getting into trouble. Those are too many words to describe the indescribable.”
Unspeakable or untold, most people feel a mixture of fear and awe in bear country. Whether you like these feelings depends on your point of view.
As most of us know, development and climate change have put pressure on the bears' habitat. These days, people in the northern Rockies encounter grizzly bears on backpacking trips, but they may also encounter them in their neighborhoods. Bears gnaw food sources such as garbage, livestock, bird feeders, chicken coops, apple trees, and beehives.
This means that people pay attention when they leave their homes because tripping outside in the dark can be dangerous - as Tim Henderson learned in 2007.
Henderson lived in a cabin in the western foothills of the Teton Range near Tetonia, Idaho. One evening, after hearing his dog bark, he went out to check. I charged at him with a grizzly bear in pursuit, and the bear pounced on Henderson.
“I like to refer to the encounter with the bear as just an encounter,” Henderson says. Unfortunately, what makes flashy headlines is the "attack," which took him to hospital with injuries to his head and elsewhere. Still, he says he thinks of himself as an outsider.
“Keeping that in mind allows me to enjoy why I moved here — to the mountains.” But these days, Henderson carries bear spray even where most people think it's superfluous.
Human-human encounters are usually bad for bears. By August, wildlife managers had killed 11 grizzly bears in 2022 due to conflicts with people. No human death statistics from bear attacks are available for 2022, but 2021 was a particularly deadly year with five deaths. However, you cannot name this trend.
Frank Van Manen, a research biologist for the Interagency Bear Study Team, told Backpacker that in the large Yellowstone ecosystem, human deaths from bear attacks are rare. "There was a fatality in 1986, followed by a period of 25 years without fatal accidents, and then several years with multiple accidents," he said.
As the Grizzly Bear Territory merges with the Human Territory, the potential for conflicts will definitely increase. Many communities attempt to cope by passing ordinances to help reduce the risk of dangerous encounters.
Bears are not easy to live with. But we can choose whether we embrace the awe and fear their presence brings, or we can envy them. For me, these feelings make me feel alive.
Molly Absolon is a contributor to Writers on the Range, writersontherange.org, an independent non-profit organization dedicated to stimulating conversation about the West. You write in Idaho. Top photo: Vincent van Zalinge
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