Close Encounter of the 3rd Kind

On the second section of the Rim Trail this morning, about midway between Cathey Vista and the intersection of the road leading to the Sunspot Solar Observatory Dr. K, Becca and I had a very close encounter with a mama bear and her cubs.  First Becca stared into the forest, perhaps fifty feet in front of us.  Then we heard the loud snapping of a branch.  I was thinking "elk," and I had my camera at the ready.  But I wasn't ready for the large bear head that popped up, attached to a large bear body.  There were several cubs with her.  I had to quickly holster my camera in order to keep Becca from moving toward the animals.  To show good faith we put a little more distance between us and her cubs.  Surprisingly, she suddenly turned tail and ran away from us, her cubs scrambling behind.  I was sorely disappointed not to have taken a photo, but discretion really did seem the better part of valor in this particular instance.  When we hiked down to the Sunspot road we turned around and retraced our track.  I was eager to have another sighting of mama bear and cubs, but Dr. K didn't want to test our luck.

Satellite device for measuring the movement of the Earth's plates