Yellowstone National Park in Winter
 

Will we see bears, or will they be snoozing?

Another question could be - will we see bears in the summer?

Nowadays, the answer is "probably not".

No bears, but the buffalo will be up close. The buffalos use the roads to get around since the snow is packed. Scared my to death, the first time I had to pass one when I was on a snowmobile.

Thanks. :-) I'm surprised there are no bears in summer. I've got bears in my own backyard.

I've seen bears during both of my summer visits - 2004 & 2005.

There are bears - and you sometimes see them- but far more rarely now. Even the commercial trip operators downplay the chance to see bears.

If you want to base the odds on historical info, then check out the 2004 stats -

http://www.nps.gov/yell/nature/anima...ortarchive.htm

By the way, that Yellowstone website is great for planning trip. I spent hours on that forum as I planned my last Y trip.

From what I understand, the bears are tough to spot partly because of the issues with the endangered fish that they eat and dwindling populations. We were there in August, and most of the bears apparently were in the high hills feeding on berries that had ripened. We lucked out though, when a family came down to eat a dead bison.

One day last July (early evening) we saw nine bears, both brown and black from Tower/Roosevelt Jct to our campsite near Cooke City. They are there, you just have to look for them at the right time of day. We have been going to the YS for well over twenty years and never has a year has passed that we have not seen at least one. Don't exect to see one up close, in fact you had better hope you don't.

When we were in Yellowstone this summer the info we got was that as soon as bears start frequenting more popular areas (often because they are fed by stupid visitors) they get shipped off to the wilderness areas (or if necessary, unfortunately, shot).

I also think bears hibernate.

No bears, they're hibernating, but you do see a lot of other wildlife. I was there a couple of weeks ago and posted a report and photo link here - http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34757439

If you check the link, you'll find bear spottings throughout the winter. But, just a few and they are mostly cubs. Maybe they just can't sleep.

Makes me think of kiddies who can't stay in bed on Christmas morning :-)