There’s nothing like living in grizzly country

Often I find myself trying to explain to family and friends my reverence for Greater Yellowstone, and why I can’t imagine living anywhere else.

The answer is best illustrated by an adrenalin-invoking moment while recently hiking a trail in the Lava Creek drainage of Yellowstone National Park. There, in a small patch of mud, was the unmistakable fresh paw print of a grizzly bear.

Our feet stopped abruptly. Our hearts pulsated. Our eyes focused with laser-like intensity on the thick brush in a narrowing canyon 50 yards ahead.

"This," I said upon realizing with palpable relief that our intrusion onto the bear’s turf wasn’t causing any apparent angst, "is why we live here."

JEFF WELSCH

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