Over the holiday weekend, Bill and I took some time to head out to the mountains in the Shenandoah National Park and along the Blue Ridge Parkway. We were hoping to photograph some wildflowers, a sunset and sunrise and Crabtree Falls. We managed most of those – the unexpected treat of the trip was the wildlife.
Usually in Shenandoah NP, we always see lots of deer and turkeys. This trip – we saw lots of deer, including one doe with three fawns at Big Meadow, and a pair of female turkeys with 10 chicks between them.
Every now and then, we’ll actually spot a bear. You’ll notice however – that you’ve not seen many (if any) photos of Shenandoah black bears before this weekend. As we drove into Shenandoah on Friday, a cute little bear raced across the road and up the hill. He was moving so fast, we had not chance of taking his photo. So we figured – hey – at least we’ve seen a bear this trip.
On our way out of the park on Saturday, we stopped at Elkwallow Wayside. As we were getting back into the car – Bill spotted something dark and fuzzy moving climbing down a tree! It was a bear cub! So he grabbed the camera and headed over to see if he could get a few photos.
There at the base of the tree was an adorable bear cub.
(c) 2009 William Lawrence
Then we spotted a second cub and their mother
(c) 2009 William Lawrence
And then we spotted the third cub! This is the best photo we got of all three cubs – you need to count the ears to see that there really are three cubs
(c) 2009 William Lawrence
As we watched, the cubs started nursing.
(c) 2009 William Lawrence
Bill got several photos of the mother with her cubs
(c) 2009 William Lawrence
(c) 2009 William Lawrence
Then two of the cubs started to climb back up the tree.
(c) 2009 William Lawrence
While Bill was photographing the bears, I grabbed the second camera, and headed around to the other side of the area where the bears were, hoping to get some photos from a different angle. As I headed up the road, the mother bear and cubs left the area where they were – and crossed the road in front of me.
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
Here’s the mother bear with one of her cubs, waiting for the third one to catch up.
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
And then two of the cubs found another tree to climb . . .
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
Seeing bears in the wild is always wonderful. This was the first time we’d seen a mother with three cubs. They were incredible to watch. The bears were the highlight of the trip!
Remember – if you do see bears in the National Parks – no matter how cute and cuddly they look – they are wild animals. Don’t get too close to them – and don’t feed them. You don’t want to do anything to provoke the mother bear into feeling like she needs to defend herself and her cubs.
We took all these photos with 100-400mm lenses – most were taken at 400mm. In addition, we cropped the photos to emphasize the bears. We made sure to give the bears lots of space – as did all the other people who were enjoying watching them.
July 6, 2009 at 10:20 am
I’m glad you put in the part about the distance you kept — I was a little concerned reading you watched them cross in front of you!
They are great pictures — I love seeing the mother’s nose in the picture of the three.
Annabel
July 6, 2009 at 4:15 pm
thanks for posting these great pictures!! We also saw a mother with three cubs on july 6. theye crossed skyline drive not far from the stony man trail head. They were there and gone so fast, just like the other bears I’ve seen, that it seems like it was just my imagination!
July 6, 2009 at 4:33 pm
Very cool photos! Wish I was there!
July 21, 2009 at 9:45 pm
Hello, Wow, Great Pix! We were also there over the 4th and went by on early Monday morning before leaving and saw them too, but not able to get pictures like yours. Actually a little too close for comfort on our motorcycle! We talked with a volunteer at the park on Sunday and hear they were going to move these bears because the mother ate food left by idiots in the picnic grounds unattended. He had a picture of her sitting at a picnic table. We hope she stays out of trouble or they’ll move here again to another unprotected area.
August 7, 2009 at 11:11 am
Wow, these photographs in the Blue Ridge Mountains are amazing! Thank you so much for posting these and sharing them with everyone!
Blue Ridge Country has a good amount of photos in their Photo Essay section on our website. I hope you will visit and even submit some of your photos!