Yellowstone Bear World 2009

For the R Munk Family Reunion we drove to Yellowstone National Park. We started our adventure in Rexburg, Idaho at Bear World. This was one of the best stops we made. The kids loved every second of it. We started with the baby bears, they were so cute. There were 2 brown bears that were wrestling and rolling around, biting and pawing at each other. They reminded me of Hunter and Hayden at all times rolling around, wrestling, tripping, tackling, and jumping on each other. I keep telling people that my boys are like bear cubs and after watching the baby bears I can report to you this day that my boys are EXACTLY like bear cubs!

Then there were the black bear cubs that were being very calm and quiet, just adorable not causing a ruckus...I am not sure what that would feel like. Having a child calm, quiet, playing alone... After the baby bears we moved on to the petting zoo. The kids had a blast petting the animals, feeding them, chasing them, poking them...(the poor animals!) As usual Hunter was polite and reserved, animals are unpredictable and make him nervous...he is definitely my kid! But he still had fun!

Then it was onto the MAIN attraction, driving through the park where the animals are roaming free! AHHH it was a bit nerve wracking to have the animals so close to our small vehicle! But we had fun driving around, screaming as the bears came close to our car and yelling at Dave to "roll the window up and stop growling at them!" We saw, sheep, elk, the very rare "white elk", buffalo, grizzly bear, black bears, brown bears, and a moose. These pictures were taken with the window rolled up so the glare is a bit annoying, but the effect is still the same...we could have touched some of these animals if we reached our hand out of the window.

Bear World offers a truck ride through the park where you can feed the bears. The truck broke down right as we were getting our tickets! BUMMER, but the funny thing is when we were driving through the park, the broken down truck was parked on the side of the road and all the bears were around it waiting for a free meal. The workers were out with just a stick for protection! I thought that was pretty brave of them. But Hayden informed me that on Animal Planet there is a guy that lives in Alaska and he has bears live at his home, and all he uses is a stick, even with the grizzly bear named Coco. To that I say, "really?" and "crazy" and "NEVER!"

I will confess, bears are about the scariest things in the world for me. I have spent a fair amount of time camping in my childhood, youth, and adulthood. And being attacked by a bear IS and always has been my greatest fear. So this experience was sort of therapeutic for me. I am proud to say I drove among the bears and survived.