Over the years......

I've gone to many great places and seen lots of cool things.

Such as wild horses just after sunset in western North Dakota.

Mount Moran reflected in the still waters of the Oxbow Bend of the Snake River just after sunrise.

A common loon looking quite uncommon reflected in the waters of a northern Wisconsin lake surrounded by a lush green forest.

Steam rising from Grand Prismatic Spring and Excelsior Geyser on a cool fall morning in Yellowstone.

A sow grizzly encouraging her new cubs to cross a mountain stream.

A bolt of lightning over Yellowstone Lake during an afternoon thunderstorm.

A grizzly bear sow and her almost grown cubs in a heavy spring snowstorm.

A beautiful cinnamon colored black bear in an Alberta berry patch.

The sun setting through steam from Clepsydra Geyser as it erupts.

These are but a few of the many memories I now hold from my travels through the years. 

Grizzly bear school

One beautiful May morning in Yellowstone park I happened upon a sow grizzly and her two little cubs at a small creek.

At first the mother bear was on one side and her cubs were on the other. All three bears were vocalizing a lot. The sow was calling for the cubs to come to her, but they loudly protested and stayed where they were.

The sow grizzly then jumped the creek and joined her cubs.

After briefly encouraging them to follow her she jumped back across to demonstrate what she wanted from them.

The cubs stayed put and called to their mother while she continued to call to them from the opposite bank.

I watched the mother bear jump back and forth across the creek two more times before she changed the plan.

Her cubs were just a month or two out of the den and not willing to get into the water just yet. The swimming lessons would have to wait for another time. The mother grizzly stayed on the cubs' side of the creek and led them around the water and off into the distance.

Many of the strategies that bears use for getting food and surviving in the wild are learned behaviors that mother bears teach their cubs.