Wild Memories Photography Tours

I’m going to tell you a story about something that happened to me a long time ago a long way from Yellowstone.

This story is prompted by the fact that I have been going through some old photos

and found a really old one I didn’t know I still had. I took it in July, 1975 in Mount McKinley National Park in Alaska. It isn’t a great photo but it represents a great memory. A friend of mine and I drove to Alaska from southeast Texas in a 1969 Volkswagen hippy van. We drove over 5,000 miles (1,500 miles on gravel where the coil fell off the engine 3 times) to get there and had a wonderful time. I was 22 years old and before we left Texas I made the grandiose, and stupid, statement that once I saw a bald eagle and a grizzly bear I would be ready to die. We got to Mount McKinley and I saw some Dall sheep about a mile from the road. I decided to take my Pentax camera, with a 300mm lens and Kodachrome 64 film, and hiked down a talus slope from the road, over the tundra towards the sheep. At the bottom of the talus was a small creek. I took my shoes and socks off and waded across the creek, then up a hill towards the sheep. As I came over the top of the hill I saw this grizzly facing away from me munching roots. I was 150 feet away and thought “It won’t hurt to take just one photo.” I clicked one photo and the grizzly quickly turned it’s head and looked at me, so I took another photo. Mistake!! It started walking towards me. I tried not to panic and knew I shouldn’t run so I walked back towards the road. This was before bear spray existed and there were no trees to climb so I never really thought about what my options were other than to get back to the road over 1/2 mile away.

A brief digression. Have you ever found yourself watching a movie where a woman was being chased by a monster, a boogie man, etc.? She always falls at the worst time and you just want to yell at her “Hey you idiot gut it up and run!” Let me tell you something I learned. When you are really scared your knee caps shake so had you can hardly stand up!

I tried not to look behind me but when I walked through the small creek, with my shoes still on, I heard the bear in the creek behind me. I began climbing up the talus slope to the road. I got about halfway up and felt like the bear was very close. I turned around and the bear reared up on it’s hind legs sniffing. He was well below me on the slope but because of his size we were eye to eye. I was out of ideas so I told him to stay like a dog. He did stay for a few seconds and looked at me like I was kind of nutty. Then I heard a bus coming and I heard someone yell “Stop, there is a bear down there!” The slope was so steep the people on the bus could see the bear but they didn’t see me. The bus stopped and then they saw me. A super nice guy got off the bus and came over and dragged me up the slope and into the bus. The driver shut the door as the bear came all of the way up to the door. From the back of the bus I heard “Oh my God, it’s Judy!” That came from my friend who was on her way to see Denali. Later that day I saw my first bald eagle and really started to worry. I went to the van and didn’t get out the rest of the day. The next day I met a couple of guys photographing for National Geographic. They said I shouldn’t have walked away from that bear, I should have stood my ground. I knew they were right but I absolutely could not make myself hold still. As I said I know this is not a great photo but it is a fabulous memory!

• 
• 
• 
• 
•