Bears in the Campground!

One morning at around five o'clock in the morning in Yosemite, we heard a bunch of people yelling and banging pots and pans and stuff.  We were all pretty irritated: were they drunk, teenagers, or just plain obnoxious?  Well, as it turns out, it was none of the above: they were trying to scare a black bear away from a nearby tent cabin across the way!

Black bear in the tent cabin village in Yosemite.  Photo Credit Julie Neher

Black bear in the tent cabin village in Yosemite.  A pretty fuzzy photo, but you can see the black bear trying to eat some of the food out of the food lockers!  Photo Credit Julie Neher

My mom only got a few pictures, but I will remember it forever, it was super, super cool! 

The tent cabin village in Yosemite.  Those giant green bins that you can see next to each cabin are where you had to put everything that had any sort of smell to keep bears from eating it!  Photo Credit Julie Neher

Bears and Bikes in Lake Tahoe

We stopped for a few nights in Lake Tahoe on our California driving trip in 2010 which, by the way was awesome (both the trip and Lake Tahoe!)  I would definitely love to go back there sometime!  The one part that I didn't really enjoy was the bike riding, I'm just not the bikes biggest fan, I don't know why.  However, I am certainly very glad that we went, as if we hadn't, we wouldn't have seen....the bears!

Black bear cub!  Photo Credit: Julie Neher

Black bear!  Photo Credit: Julie Neher

Black bear!  Photo Credit: Julie Neher

Black bear cub!  Photo Credit: Julie Neher

Black bear!  Photo Credit: Julie Neher

Black bear!  Photo Credit: Julie Neher

Black bear!  Photo Credit: Julie Neher

Black bear!  Photo Credit: Julie Neher

Black bear!  Photo Credit: Julie Neher

We saw someone looking through the trees, and when they saw us approaching, they motioned for us to stop.  We stopped, followed their line of sight, and saw an adult female black bear being followed by two cubs!  It was really cool, and they were super cute!

Al Tahoe on Dwellable

Bison: Up Close and Personal!

At one point on our Grand Teton/Yellowstone/Sun Valley driving trip in 2006, we went on a ranger-guided nature walk in Yellowstone.  As we were walking along the trail, the ranger told us a lot about the local wildlife, and mentioned at least a few times the dangers of confronting a bison.  The ranger led us into a small clearing surrounded by tree for a short break, when suddenly, a large bull bison wandered by right behind the ranger along the trail. 

A bison, right up close and personal on the path!  Photo Credit: Julie Neher

A bison, right up close and personal on the path!  Photo Credit: Julie Neher

Everyone froze, staring at the bison as it started blankly right back at us.  Fortunately, it was uninterested in us, and wandered on along the path, without increasing the "Bison Casualty Count" for that year!

Skunk in the Showers!

On our California driving trip in 2010, my family and I stayed a few nights in a cute little campsite on the coast, sort of near Monterey in Santa Cruz.  We had heard that you could see whales there sometimes, but unfortunately we saw none.  However, on one fine morning, my mother and sister did see a skunk!  It was just kind of chilling over in the outdoor showers, and looked deceptively cuddly!  Here are some pictures!

The skunk in the shower!  Photo Credit: Julie Neher

The skunk in the shower!  Photo Credit: Julie Neher

The skunk in the shower!  Photo Credit: Julie Neher

The skunk in the shower!  Photo Credit: Julie Neher

On the same trip, our family was camping in Big Sur, and my dad and I were outside of our tent reading, when I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye.  I looked, and there was a skunk, so close to me that I could have easily reached out to touch it!  Fortunately I didn't startle it or anything, as it moved off without spraying us.  The next morning (I remember this, but strangely enough, no one else in my family does), we also saw a mother skunk cross our dirt driveway with three or four baby skunks in tow!

Feeding Some Tigers!

So here are two more videos that I have uploaded from the behind-the-scenes visit to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo that I took a few months back with my father, sister, and grandma and grandpa, under the guidance of Kelley Parker!  It was a lot of fun, and we got to feed the Siberian or Amur tigers while we were there!  The Siberian tiger, Panthera tigris altaica,  is a sub-species of the tiger, Panthera tigris, and is labeled as "Endangered" by the IUCN.  The Siberian tiger is found in the Primorye region of eastern Russia.  Anyways, enough chit-chat, here are the videos!

Feeding the Siberian Tiger!


Siberian Tiger Jumps Up To Get A Pumpkin

Green Mountain Falls on Dwellable

Behind the Scenes at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo....AGAIN!

On Monday, my father, sister and I again traveled to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo with my grandma and grandpa and got another behind the scenes experience from Kelley Parker!  Thanks again, Kelley!  No penguins this time, but we did get to feed the tigers and river otters, as well as see the grizzlies behind the scenes again!  Here are a few pictures and videos from the awesome trip!  I will add some more pictures and videos later on, as well as some pictures and video of other animals from the zoo from both this time and last time, as I forgot to upload any last time as well!  Enjoy!

Feeding the Amur Tiger!

Siberian Tiger Rolls Around

Feeding the River Otters at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo!

Myself feeding one of the tigers!

The tiger playing with a pumpkin that we put into its enclosure for it....I will upload an awesome video of this later!

One of the other tigers staring at us from its yard.  Isn't it beautiful!

The third tiger staring up at us from below, in the enclosure that can be seen by the public.  Despite the fact that we were probably more than one hundred feet away and behind a wall with only a few tiny openings, it knew EXACTLY where we were!  How neat!

A cute picture of one of the river otters eating a trout chunk!

Another cute picture of one of the river otters eating a trout chunk!

One of the two grizzly bears.  Right before I took this picture he made a loud noise and kind of jumped at me, it scared the living daylights out of me!

Divide on Dwellable