Animal sightings
 

What is the most thrilling animal you've seen in the wild?

A bald eagle made it's way into my neighborhood once growing up. That was very cool. The entire neighborhood was out looking at it.

I'm still awed by the size of a bull elk. There is nothing like happening upon a big herd.

There are several packs of wild mustangs roaming in remote Eastern Utah. This is a very cool sight to see.

Wolves in Yellow Stone.

Really big Bobcat at noon on bike trail in heart of Dallas.

A baby black bear in California, and soon after, its mother following us.

A huge bull elk -- very impressive and intimidating as it was too close for comfort.

swimming with a large sea turtle while snorkeling -- beautiful.

Here are a few:

1) Grizzlies in Alaska. I had a momma bear tear all of my gear to shreds on the side of the river while I watched helplessly in my waders out in the New Halen River. Thrilling, but expensive. Among other damage, she snapped two of my spare rods into pieces.

2) I was fishing on the Snake River in Idaho and walked around some bushes and came face to face with a huge bull moose. It's hard to describe just how big those things are up close. Just about soiled my waders.

3) Coming face to face with a big gray-tipped reef shark while snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef. Scared me for a second but he lazily swam by and I followed him around for about five minutes. Up until the divemaster chased me down in a raft and said "Get back to the boat, mate." I looked up and I was a long ways from the dive boat.

4) Wild orcas in Prince William Sound. Nothing quite like them.

Sitting in a campground on the bear river with my family, my sister's family, and my grandparents. Cooking a wiener over the fire when all of a sudden a big bull moose comes running right through the camp heading straight toward my daughter who was sitting on a stump. I thought she was a goner and then the moose veered off at the last second.

That was way too close for comfort.

Mine are nothing compared to Lebowski, but here goes:

- A couple of years ago I was downhilling on the mountain bike (with Steelblue shortly behind me). I came around a corner and there was a 300-400 pound black bear sitting on the fire road. He took one look at me and took off like a bolt down the road and bounded off into the brush. I got maybe 30 feet away from him by the time I skidded to a stop.

- Climbing Clouds Peak in Wyoming, about 150 yards from the top and with a huge cliff just off to my left, a huge bald eagle caught a thermal and came flying up right next to me. He was probably 40-50 feet away, but close enough to appreciate how beautiful and powerful those birds are.

- Rafting down the trinity river in northern california we hit a slow section of the river that didn't require any paddling. As we were gliding along, we happened upon a large bald eagle sitting atop a 15 foot tall dead tree stump that was sticking out of the river near the waters edge. He just watched us go as we floated past him down the river, probably 20-30 feet away. very sureal experience.

- A few years ago, a buddy and I put on wet suits and snorkels and went swimming with the salmon during the big fall run in northern california on Battle Creek. Not only were they shoulder to shoulder across the creek, but were also stacked 5 or 6 deep to the creek bed. Once we stopped splashing in the water, they basically just bellied up to us and hung out. We saw several salmon that were 50-60 pounds. There was also a steelhead trout that was about 24 inches long.

-Rafting down the snake river we saw a bald eagle on a tree stump about 15 feet from the water, as we got closer it took off, the wing span of those things is amazing.
- Mapleton Canyon i was walking up the side of the mountain and it was snowing, i look over to my right and about 20 yards away a bear is sliding down the hill in the snow. It saw me but kept going down the hill.
- the next week I was up Mapleton canyon again, and i am not sure if it was the same bear or not, but I walked through some trees in to this meadow and there was another bear staring at me from across the meadow, this time about 30 feet away, i slowly backed away until i was back in the trees, i watched for a few minutes as it stood there and then it took off the other way.
- two nights later me and 3 of my buddies were scouting some deer up Payson canyon, and i saw another bear this one was much further away maybe 100 yards, but it was crazy seeing 3 bears in close to two weeks.

Bald Eagle sitting atop a tree in Provo Canyon.

Bear in the the Sierra Mountains in CA.

Two Golden Eagles in the Sierra.

Lots of monkeys outside of Bangalore, India.

Wolf at base of Grand Tetons.

Grand Tetons...gotta love those French, I'll be they like the falsies!

A screaming wild boar at Hohenfels, Germany. Wild and scary as hell. It was night and I was watching a unit train up for a deployment to Bosnia. Luckily PKO are not tactical so we had our lights on.

Many Elk, they have nice racks.

A Cow Moose one winter in the Rockland Valley.

Bears in Alaska.

Bald Eagles in Alaska.

Whales in Alaska.

Orrin Porter Rockwell at the 1984 Holiday Bowl. Big badge on with Cosmo doing a "We're # 1!" He also had a beer in one hand and a smoke in the other. Grizzly beard and got the Y fans in the North Endzone at Jack Murphy worked into a frenzy. Trully one of the Lord's annointed.

Boobs at Cheetahs......

Pfft. You guys need to get out more.

In Dutch Harbor, Alaska I've seen many dozens of Eagles perched on gigantic crab pots, shanties, drydocked vessels, all over the place, as prevalent as crows.

In the Katmai National Park, Alaska, I have seen a stream crowded with perhaps a dozen Brown Bears not 30 yards away from us, feasting on salmon.

In Katmai, I saw a lynx stop in the road twenty yards ahead of us and look over and just sare at us.

In the Russian River, Alaska, I have seen salmon magesterially leaping over falls and rapids and resting in eddies (near my feet) on their way to their place of birth to lay eggs.

Bald Eagles are a common appearance in and around my neighborhood, and the state park adjacent to my circle.

There is a falcon that perches on buildings here downtown.

I saw a killer whale again and again breach close by our day cruise ship in
Kenai Fjords National Park, AK.

At Kenai Fjords I have seen puffins blanketing the spruce studded cliffs.

The largest salmon run in the lower 48 states passes by 50 yards from my back yard..

In Denali National Park, Alaska, I've probably ten times sat and watched across the way as grizzlies sometimes with cubs loped around and rooted.

At the confluence of the Russian and Kenai rivers I once saw a bald eagle swoop and bring up a twisting sockeye salmon in its talons.

I'm Anchorage I lived in a remote house in the mountains where moose grazing near our yard was a common occurrence.