After a six-hour drive from Salt Lake City, Utah, we reach ‘Mountain Home’, a VRBO-rented mansion in Montana that’s a two-hour drive from Yellowstone National Park (YNP). Cut off from civilisation, all we see around is a smattering of similar-looking mansions within a hoola-hoop of snow-capped mountains. For the next three days, this is to be our home, where we are kept company by dense trees, sullen clouds, and as we are told, a good population of Grizzly bears. There are warning boards everywhere, lest we forget.
Back in the house, after a two-hour trail to Ousel Falls that evening, we hover around the grill in the patio, as cubes of tofu, mushroom, and capsicum seethe and blacken. When the conversation fades, we hear the wind whistle through rows of tall pine trees and birds chirp their way back home. And in that calmness, we lie neck-deep in the hot tub counting stars. Until one of them says, “What if a bear suddenly shows up?”
Lost and found
The next day, the group divides itself into two — one goes in a five-seater car, and the other, a seven. The plan is to trek to the top of Bunsen Peak.
At some point, the seven-seater goes missing, the four of us in the five-seater decide to wait at the foot of the trail. With no network lines, we hold on to strands of hope. Tension soars, two friends decide to drive all the way back to trace the other car, one decides to wait right at the spot in case they show up, and I find myself walking to the top of Bunsen Peak. Alone.
The dusk sets in slowly; the path grows gravelly and narrow. Deep in the woods, I realise I have no bear spray, no weapons. Too late. With every turn, a new viewpoint emerges, and so does a nervous recollection of recent news stories. Less than three weeks ago, a researcher was mauled and left with a fractured skull by a Grizzly bear, in Montana. A month ago, a 72-year-old woman was attacked by a bison just a few miles from where I stand.
In fact, Yellowstone National Park had even recently launched a campaign called ‘A bear doesn’t care’ — a crude reminder of us merely being prey to even the most adorable of them.
- Talk about diet, and grizzlies are a confused lot. They eat everything from fruits and berries, to moths, moose, elks and bison. Sometimes, even their own kind.
- Don’t let their size fool you. They can run at 56 km/hour; Usain Bolt’s record is 44.72 km/hour. And they can climb trees. During an encounter, your best save would be to lie flat and silent.
- Fancy a bear for a pet? Back in 1807, President Thomas Jefferson was gifted two grizzly bears that he used to keep caged outside the White House.
A walk in the park (Clockwise from left) Tourists gather to watch Old Faithful force out boiling water and steam from the bedrock below; a Grizzly bear with cubs and the entrance to the park
My steps gain speed as I finish the last few miles of my trail, ignoring the sight of fallen trees, and the sound of cracking twigs. Soaked in sweat, I am back in the car and on my way to Mammoth Hot Springs, where to our surprise, we spot the rest of the group. United now, we head to Old Faithful, the poster child of YNP. The geyser has been faithfully spurting out a mix of steam and boiling water every 90 minutes (on an average) for 140 years. A less faithful, more sporadic, and a lot more intense geyser is the Steamboat, which after a gap of four years decided to erupt, three times over, this year, leaving geologists pondering over the ways of the earth.
On our way back home, we are caught in traffic. There is a bear in the woods, we hear; all we spot is a brown dot moving in a canvas of green. That night, over chilled beer, we talk about these bruins. As it turns out, the grizzlies can now be legally hunted as trophy animals, beyond the Yellowstone and Grand Teton area. In light of the increase in their population over the last four decades (in 1975, it was 175, now it’s close to 700), the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission gave its approval to hunt 22 grizzlies, out of which 12 can be females, this fall. Idaho also announced its first grizzly season since 1974. There are several lawsuits against the motion, but will they succeed in cancelling the hunting season? We’ll have to wait till August to know that.
The tale of mama bear
On our last day at YNP, as we return to our abode, there is again congestion on the road. Must be a bison, a mule deer, or a coyote, we debate with a yawn. But then we see doors of cars open, families spill out, and walk gingerly to the side of the road with their cameras. We follow. What we see is a mama bear play with her two cubs. The slow-witted, honey-obsessive Winnie the Poohs, and the sleepy and fun-loving Baloos, just a stone’s throw away. One of the cubs stands on two legs, while the other rolls on the feet of its mother. There is a certain nonchalance with which they have fun. A feeling of security, which we hope, no bullet can ever steal.