Travel Blog

The other day on our way to work, we took the back way on Mormon Row. On the way down the road, we saw a parking area that we had never really noticed before, and we saw some people hiking up a trail that we didn't know was a trail. But because the trail went straight up a mountainside, Phil was intrigued. We looked the hike up at work, found out it was an actual trail called the Black Butte Trail, and decided that on our days off, we were going to give it a try. So today that's what we did.

Here's what the trail looks like from the parking area:

See that squiggly little path going up the mountain. That's it. At the base of the trail, we were just walking along, when I looked to my left and said, "Oh sh**, a bison." And when I say that guy was to my left, I'm talking about 10 yards away. They're quiet buggers when they want to be. And this was a big dude. He was looking right at us, so we backed up slowly, keeping our eyes on him while he was keeping his eyes on us. He started to walk away, going to the right of the trail, and we let out a little breath. But then he stopped and looked at us again. If you've never had a bison stare you down, then you won't get it, but let me tell you, it's a near-pants-wetting experience. He then continued to the right towards the rest of the herd that was miles away. He stopped one more time to stare us down and to decide whether or not to give us a good stomping, but I guess he figured out we were no threat to him and so he continued on his way. While he was staring at us, I had the opportunity for the bison photo of a lifetime, but I didn't want to make him mad, so I settled on this one:

After our hearts got back to a normal rhythm, we decided to continue our hike. A couple more yards along, and we came across this lovely sight:

Hiking tip number one: when you come across a bison carcass, it may be time to turn around and go back to your car. I mean, we're not complete idiots and we know carcass means lunch to many, many critters, so we were scanning the area pretty diligently while we were posing for pics by the bones. But we decided that since all the meat was gone, except for that one foot that was inexplicably intact, and because we didn't see the head/skull anywhere, we came to the conclusion that everyone who was interested in the meal had come and gone, and that maybe even the Rangers knew about it because they take the heads sometimes so tourists or locals don't take it home with them for a trophy. So we decided to continue our hike.

It took us about an hour to make it to the top of that mountain. It was about a thousand-foot ascent, and we had to stop a lot to let the waves of dizziness pass. Here's our truck from up top:

That little speck down by that tree is the Beast. And we had a really nice view of the surrounding areas, including our campground:

The hike was such that we would go up and around a relatively flat area, and when you get to the other side, you have a nice view of the Tetons. So that was our goal for the day. We had a good guidebook printout that kept us on course, and we we're having a very enjoyable hike. Here's Phil posing by a fallen tree that still had a bunch of pine cones attached:

Notice the bear spray near Phil's hand. We were being very bear aware, and singing and making noise the whole time, like good little Teton hikers. I just wanted you to know that before I go any further. We finally made it to a clearing where we could view the mountains. And I would show you a picture of them here, but it seems that my download didn't make it, so you'll have to take my word for it.

And then it was time to turn around and head back to the truck because we had an appointment in Victor, ID, to get four new tires for the truck. So we went back the way we came, which went a lot quicker since it was all flat or downhill.

We were noticing quite a bit of scat along our hike, but nothing to make us too worried. We think we saw some wolf or coyote, and there was bison poop, which surprised us a bit since you wouldn't think they would like it up there. And then we came upon this pile:

Pretty close up picture, right? It was so pretty I thought I get a nice close pic. We figure this was black bear scat since it was full of seeds and berries, but it anyone knows for sure, let us know.

And then it was time for the steep descent, and I was having some trouble because I was sliding a lot, and I was holding my bear spray in my hand because I don't have a belt. But since we were almost back to the truck, and since we were in pretty wide open space, I gave Phil my bear spray to put on his belt so that if I fell, I wouldn't explode the canister on some rocks or something. And since we had that run-in with the bull bison at the beginning of our hike, we made sure to stop at the top and make sure there were no more bison in our path. But of course, there was another huge bull bison waiting for us at the bottom, pretty much in the same place as the fellow that morning:

If you don't know much about bison, you may wonder why we are so cautious. We know they look pretty tame and all, but they are mean, mean animals who can go from a dead stop to 35 mph in about five seconds. And plus, it's the rut, so they're even meaner than usual. We stopped when we saw him, and decided to wait up on the hill until he was gone. He was looking in our direction, but he didn't seem too freaked out or anything, so we just chilled and took his picture. I was pretty much focusing on him when I hear Phil say, "There's a bear coming up the hill." He said it in such a way that I knew he wasn't kidding. Phil told me to start moving downhill. I said, "Towards that bison?" And he said yes, so we did our best to move downhill a bit. We kept our cool and Phil handed me my spray back and we stood side by side with our bear spray ready, and we waited to see where that bear was going to come over the hill. I didn't see it at all at this point, but Phil was about as tense as I've ever seen him, so I knew it was coming. And it did. About 20 feet away, above us on the hill. And then it looked at us. It was a grizzly bear. We were so close we could see the little tag in its right ear. I've read the bear books and I knew I wasn't supposed to look it in the eye, but I couldn't help it. Phil talked to it in a low voice, like you're supposed to, and told it we were there. I took that as my cue to use my air horn. I left off a big blast, and the bear took his last look at us and hightailed it across the trail and into the woods to the right.

We're pretty sure that bison saved our lives. If it wouldn't been for us waiting for him to move along, we would have walked right down that hill and probably right onto that carcass that the bear was probably mulling over before that bison scared him up the hill. And even though it may not sound like the bison did us a favor by scaring the bear up the hill towards us, if we would have surprised that bear while it was at his feeding spot, we would have been pretty much done for. It would have been in defensive mode at that point, protecting its food, and it surely would have done whatever it could to keep us away. I don't know why there was a big bull bison by the bone pile twice in one day, maybe it was that guy's honey or something, and he was having a hard time letting go, but we're thankful for that scary bison, who, by the way, waited at the bottom of the hill until the bear was long gone before he continued on his way.

Needless to say, Phil and I finished that hike on wobbly legs and with shaking hands. We called our boss, who is an avid hiker, from the truck and asked her if she thought we should report what had happened, and she said to come on over to the Visitor Center and talk to the Rangers. So we first went to our campground office to tell those folks because the Black Tail Butte Trail is only about two miles from here and we wanted them to tell the campers to find another place to hike. They took down our information, and told us we were lucky because, "Did you see the paper today?" We looked where she was pointing and the headline read, "Park: Bear killed hiker." Another hiker was killed in Yellowstone by a grizzly bear. So on that note, we drove over to our Visitor Center and the Ranger there filled out a detailed report about our encounter. They were specifically interested in the carcass, so I guess they didn't know about it. We should have figured they would never have left a carcass that close to a trail. We were really dumb where that was concerned, and we won't be so dumb in the future, that's for sure.

That's about all the excitement for this week. So until the next close encounter, hike safe.