One of my favorite rituals of spring in Yellowstone is the reemergence of the bears.  Grizzly bear boars tend to lead the way, with the first one usually spotted in early March.  Next up are black bear boars and grizzly moms, and then finally black bear moms with cubs.

This winter the bear den near Tower Junction was occupied by a black bear mom with two tiny cubs-of-the-year.  Contrary to conventional wisdom, bears don’t truly hibernate – they just go into a state of reduced activity called torpor, where they remain somewhat aware of their surroundings and can wake up if needed.  On warm days in April this year, the black bear mom in the den by Tower and her newborn cubs began making appearances at the den entrance and eventually started venturing out for short walks.

 

 

 

My longtime friend Rob E. came for a visit in late April, and we apparently just missed the black bear mom and her cubs abandoning their den.  I wish we’d been there for their departure, but regardless it’s been pretty amazing to have a chance to observe a bear den like that over the course of multiple seasons (occupied three of the past four winters).

 

 

 

 

 

Rob E. and I may have missed the bear family leaving the den, but we did manage to find quite a bit of other spring wildlife.  The usual suspects, of course – bison, elk, pronghorn, deer, foxes, coyotes, ravens, etc. – plus black bears, bighorn sheep, a wolf testing a herd of elk, bald and golden eagles feeding on a bison carcass, a badger, sandhill cranes, ospreys, a peregrine falcon (that I would have missed if Rob E. hadn’t spotted it), a lone grizzly (also spotted by Rob E.), and so many moose that we lost count.  Thanks to our friend Nick, Rob E. also had a memorable nighttime sighting of a grizzly mom with cubs.  It was a great visit.

 

 

 

 

 

On the other side of Tower Junction from the bear den, the 2.5 mile stretch of road that goes up to Calcite Springs and then down to Tower Fall is one of the best places in the park to see black bears in the spring.  Bears generally start appearing there in late April, but the road doesn’t open to cars until the second week of May, which makes it my favorite place to hike during that specific window of springtime.

This year I walked up to Calcite every morning from early April though May 9th, the day it opened to cars.  My bear sightings weren’t as good as last year – when several of the area’s black bear moms had newborn cubs – but I did find at least seven different bears, including two of the moms I watched last year, whose spring 2024 cubs-of-the-year were now healthy-looking yearlings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It doesn’t last long, but spring in Yellowstone – when the weather is milder but the crowds aren’t oppressive yet – can be magical.