My favorite part was the bears. You see, as soon as you drive into the park they had signs every where saying, "Driving Fast Kills Bears." Bears? Bears. Well... that settled it. I opened my eyes as wide as they could go and glued my forehead to the window. I mean, really, I glued my forehead to the window. I did not want to miss my one and only opportunity to see a real live bear. There were also signs saying, "Don't kill Deer, Drive Slow" ... but shoot, I've seen a deer before. A real live, up close deer. Forget about the deer. I can see a deer anywhere. I want to see me a bear. So we keep driving. No bears jump out from behind a tree or hop on the top of our car. But I'm sure I will see at least one bear. So I keep looking. ...and that's when I saw him (or her) my first real live bear. The bear was huge! He was standing up and his front paws were in the air. He was very still, but very big and black. His face looked fierce and as we drove past him, I was sure his eyes locked with mine... maybe I shouldn't have glued my forehead to the window. That would make it a little difficult to escape from the mouth of the bear if I needed to. Thankfully we kept on driving. And the bear didn't chase us. whew.
Though, how cool is that?! I saw a bear! And no one had to point it out to me like they normally do. Not that anyone has Ever pointed out a bear to me. I'm talking about the deer, groundhogs, opossums, and red birds that everyone is always saying, "Look! a deer!" and I turn my head round to see, but it's never there when I turn to look at it. The hubs does that a lot. He'll say, "Look, Sweets! A groundhog!" and I'll turn around in my seat real quick like and point my eyes in the direction his hand was just pointing in. But, there is never a groundhog, or a deer, or a red bird for that matter. It's really quite disappointing. That's why when I saw the bear, all on my own, I felt so proud, and that's also why I didn't show the hubs. I had pointed out a few waterfalls (big waterfalls) before I saw the bear, but he never saw them. He always just said, "Where? I can't see it? There's no waterfall! I can't see it." Well... just so you know, Hubs, just because you didn't see it, doesn't mean it wasn't there. I know perfectly well what I saw. I know I saw a super tall waterfall, and I know that I saw a big black bear. Even if you didn't.
Wow. I think I have never been this pleased with myself before. I saw a big black bear all by myself. I wonder if there are any brown bears. Will I see any cute little cuddly cubs? That's what I want to see! I want to see me some cubs. ... but those might be harder to spot, since they are smaller and all. So I squirt some more glue to my forehead and continue to look out the window. As we drive I feel the car turning up tiny little winding roads. going in circles it seems. I'm just glad I have a window to look out of ... otherwise there would be a pile of trouble in my lap. gross. I see trees, loads and loads of trees. Green ones. Some are dead though, all their branches have burnt off. Sad. But there are a gazillion other trees that are still green, so I guess it's all good. As we near the top of a mountain I see something moving in the woods. I feel a big fat grin spread on my face. It's another bear I hope!!! yes. yes. a bear. I know it. I can feel it. And there will be little baby cubs with her too. I open my eyes even wider and refuse to blink.
It's a deer.
eh. oh well. I tried. I mean, I did my part. You would think the forest would do theirs. Apparently not.
We get to the top and look around at the incredible view. Mountains spread for miles, snow on some, bare rock on others, thousands of trees on still more. A waterfall is gushing out of one of the mountain sides. And I stand. Amazed. It's too much to take in. I feel so tiny and insignificant. So completely worthless. I mean, look at all that is out there... all that is so much bigger and greater than I. So I keep standing. My eyes are studying, searching, looking at all of the colors, all of the trees, and all of the rocks that there are to see. Breathtakingly Beautiful.
Ten hours and five hundred pictures later, we are climbing (and when I say "we" I really mean "me") into the car. I climb over the seat, then over the shoes on the floor of the car, then my foot touches the top of the car because I have to be sure to step over the bag and not on it. After one foot touches the floor the next foot goes up, over my head, to the roof, and then comes down again, backwards. Turn around and sit. I feel like a dog. Chasing his tail, going in circles, getting no where. But that only lasts about an hour. And we are off.
On the way out we're all chit chatting about what we saw and all that jazz. And that's when I see it. Them. My head bangs against the glass I'm so excited. There, among the trees are three little bears. Well, one is big and two are little. They are spread out, it looks like they are playing freeze tag or something. One little cub is chasing the other. And then they both are still as a tree. Man, they are really good at that game. I would hate to play freeze tag with them. They'd beat me right out. "Look, Hubs!" I say as I poke the window violently with my finger.
"Huh?" he says half heartedly.
"A bear! Three bears!" I keep poking the glass as if my finger is talking.
"What? Where?" he says as he slowly leans across the seat to look at where my finger is pointing. "I don't see one," he mumbles.
The sad truth is by the time he had come to his senses we were long past the three bears, so there's no way he could have seen them playing freeze tag. But I did. He saw a deer, I saw a bear. Four to be exact. That's right.
The hubs says, "You didn't see any bears!"
"Did so!" I rebuttal, sounding like a three year old.
"Did not!"
"Did so!" we are so pathetic. "Just because you didn't see them doesn't mean I didn't see them!"
And that's the truth. Just because you don't see something that someone else did (especially when driving rather quickly through a dense forest) doesn't mean that it wasn't there. It merely means they missed out on the bear sighting of a life time.
Though, you know, it is funny. I thought I might see the bears running and moving a lot more than they were. The first one just stood still and gave the "I'm going to eat you" stare. And the other three were playing freeze tag. Run. Stop. Run. Stop. Freeze. They all made themselves still as a tree when I spotted them. It's like they knew I was on the look out for them, and they wanted to trick me so I would go hiking up the trail right next to them... at which point they would ROAR a deafening ROAR and I would become speechless and paralyzed with fear, and then, then they would pounce. And that would be the end of my story.
Thankfully, I was wise enough to stay off of the trials with the "freezing" bears as I like to call them. I wanted to see a bear, and I did. I had no desire to get close enough to actually touch a bear though. So yes. I saw everything I wanted to see and then some. Good trip.
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