Grizzly Encounter

Many of you think that bears literally live outside our back door and that when we step outside we need to carry a rifle and bear spray, as the bears are ready to pounce on us and eat us for lunch.  Not the case.  While there are a lot of bears in the area and yes, there are grizzly encounters and the very occasional "attack" it is really rare to actually see them.   We get just as excited about seeing them as our friends who come to visit because we can count on our hands the number of times we have seen them in the wild.  Which is why even I visit the tourists traps to see them.

We drive past the "Grizzly Encounter" facility nearly every day as we head to Bozeman.  I had yet to stop until last week when Sally and the girls were going to meet one of their friends who was passing through town on her way back East.  I knew Mattie would love to see the bears so close and it was about time I checked this place out!  We were not disappointed and it was great to hear the rescue stories of how these bears got to this nice place.  All but one of them had been rescued from bad/abusive captivity situations and now lived a relatively nice life where they get fresh air, no cages, fed regularly and companionship with others of their kind.  They do a very nice job of talking and telling you all about brown bears, their habitat, how to behave in the wild so you avoid a bad encounter with them, etc.   Very informative.

While there were REAL LIVE bears just feet from them, they preferred to fight over who could hug and hold the wooden bear at the gift shop.... 2 year olds...

Audrey, Sally and Mattie observing Brutus the Bear and Shaena the bear.

Brutus is the same bear you see in all the movies.  He is the one in the background digging the hole.  Shaena was chilling in the water and playing with the log.

They both took a dip and even did a little playful growling and roaring for us!

Next time anyone visits I will take you here ... It was a fun way to spend an hour or two.