Bears in Paradise

This is the fourth of my four black bear galleries. These pictures were taken on the Skyline Trail in the Paradise area of Mount Rainier National Park.

Coat of Many Colors

A black bear with brown fur dines on huckleberries along the Skyline Trail in the Paradise area of Mount Rainier National Park

Changeling

Watching the bear in person it was pretty obvious that it was young, I'm no expert on bears but it seemed at least a year old but not yet a full adult. Looking through my pictures sometimes it appears younger to me and sometimes older, a furry changeling, but I just love his fur coat of many colors.

A black bear with brown fur near the Skyline Trail in the Paradise area of Mount Rainier National Park

Huckleberries

"Nom nom nom … huckleberries huckleberries huckleberries … What was that? Did somebody say something? Nom nom nom …"

A black bear with brown fur browses on huckleberries near the Skyline Trail in the Paradise area of Mount Rainier National Park

A Matter of Trust

I watched this young bear graze on huckleberries for an hour in a meadow below the Skyline Trail at Mount Rainier, so it was already comfortable with me when it moved up towards the trail. I could see where it wanted to go so I walked in the opposite direction to give it plenty of space. I assumed it would continue higher up the hill but instead it started walking down the trail in the same direction I needed to go, so I trailed at a respectful distance to keep it in its comfort zone. Since I was walking behind it, my view of the bear was its rear end. I should post a gallery of animal rear ends I’ve taken over the years, keeping an animal in its comfort zone doesn’t necessarily lead to the best pictures ;)

I’ve experienced this in my own home, our cat Scout often sleeps with her rear end pointed towards my face, when she was younger I woke up many a time smothered by a little kitten butt. My wife convinced me to take it as a badge of honor, that she was showing trust by exposing her most vulnerable position, so I’ve adopted the same philosophy to animals on the trails. Missed picture opportunities are a small price to pay for earning their trust.

In this case though, the bear’s desire to fatten up for the winter worked to my advantage, it turned aside for a moment to grab a few more huckleberries before continuing down the trail.

A black bear with brown fur scratches its back on a tree on the Skyline Trail in the Paradise area of Mount Rainier National Park

Oh Yes! OH YES! OHHHHH YES!

My favorite moment with this bear, after stopping to eat huckleberries beside the trail, it returned to the trail but soon turned aside again, stood up on its hind legs and began rubbing its back up and down on the tree. Perhaps it had an itch that needed scratching but more likely the young bear was scent marking its territory.

Other Bears in Paradise

Environmental portrait of a black bear running on a hill near the Skyline Trail in the Paradise area of Mount Rainier National Park

First Bear

This was not only the first bear I saw in Mount Rainier but the first bear I’ve seen outside of Wyoming. I was photographing some black-tailed deer when a couple of hikers coming down the trail mentioned that a bear was far off in the distance. It was quite a ways away so I went for an environmental portrait, a different look than I normally see in my Wyoming trips, and then it suddenly started sprinting over towards the mountain stream. It didn’t run for long, from my vantage point it wasn’t clear what made it start or stop, but I was impressed with how quickly it covered the terrain.

I figured it would be my only bear sighting of the trip, but later in the day I saw a young black bear near the trail and would see several more distant bears in Mount Rainier and another one close up in the Olympics.

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