Yellowstone National Park

  

Cinnamon Color bears are actually black bears. This one was going from pine tree to pine tree eating the white pine nuts. I had been watching him for an hour or so. It was an early morning in late September at Yellowstone National Park. Instead of continuing to follow along behind him, I decided to move 100 yards ahead in anticipation of him coming towards me -- knowing that he was not the least bit interested in me (or the 25 people watching him), he wanted those nuts. Eventually, he was right in front of me. Although he was only10-12 feet away I felt reasonably safe. There was a guard rail between us and a car was parked close enough that I could get to if necessary. I was more afraid that the Park Ranger would ticket me for being so close.

 I try to be a good example at Yellowstone because there are so many "tourists" that don't understand bears. So, I don't try to get as close to a bear (at Yellowstone) as I would in British Columbia or Alberta when there are no other humans around. In this case, I took a quick photo and moved back slowly but far enough away to get a photo of the bear as he jumped up onto the tree.