Another day, another horse... and bear.

I recently went on a girls only crew ride (no guests) from the ranch through the adjacent Grand Teton National Park. I rode a sweet mare named Coral for the first time, and there were 4 of us on the ride. We begged our wrangler friend to "find us a bear", since many of the guests had seen them on their rides lately. This was my first Fall ride since the leaves had begun to turn, and it looked totally different than just a few weeks earlier. The cottonwoods were finally turning yellow!

 

About ten minutes into the ride, we came across a big bull elk with full antlers. He didn't scamper away like he would have if we had been on foot. Horses can get a lot closer to wildlife ;)

 

We crossed a few shallow creeks, and the surefooted horses found 

their way  across the slippery, rocky bottom.

  
We also goofed around and took lots of photos since we didn't have to "behave".

   
These two are best friends and cabin mates.

 

 

We crossed through a wind burst area and over lots of fallen trees but still no bear. Finally we turned around and headed back. As we passed through some trees, one of the girls yelled "bear." We all stopped, became silent, and sure enough, the horses had already detected it. Their nostrils were flaring and they were on high alert from the scent. We looked to the left and there it was, about 30 feet off the trail!

It was just sort of meandering through the woods, calmly looking for food and then stopped to rub up against a tree. Then it started to slowly make its way towards us, so we moved on. Success! ;)

 We rode along a deep creek on the way back and through some sage brush flats, then through one last Aspen forest. All in all, another lovely day on a horse.

 

Here are some random ranch life shots...

Earlier in the week, I was awakened by horses, eating grass right next to my cabin. They don't usually venture that close when out to pasture. When I hear chomping outside my window, I never know what it's going to be...moose, deer, horse, bear?

  

Here are the 70+ horses being wrangled out to pasture in the afternoon after their 

riding day is done... always a treat to see and hear. Beautiful!

 

With the recent cold temps, we've been building cozy fires in the lodge 

for  the guests during meals... ahh.

Some of the ranch girls at the Stagecoach Bar for "Sunday night church" (live country 

music and dancing with local cowboys). Good times! ;)

And finally, a strange phenomenon that I saw for the first time this week. I woke up and the Tetons were GONE! Completely obscured from base to peak by clouds/mist while the valley remained clear. What a completely different landscape compared to the very same view during July (below). It was like a movie set. A few hours later, they were back in all their rugged glory... whew!