Looking Back - Bear Country Critters

 We have so many wonderful sights and scenes and memories on which to look back in our years of workamping — so many from Bear Country USA especially. Here is a sampling of critters we were privileged to see nearly every day in the summer of 2006. There is a magnificent herd of elk in the drive-through portion of the park as well as reindeer and several varieties of mountain goats and sheep. This beautiful big guy is just getting his new sprouting of antlers, still in velvet.

 Pretty foxes, one of my favorite animals.

 The two grizzlies were a constant source of amusement and inspired not a little awe. This is Cherokee, the female, making a funny face for the tourists.

 And, just to prove that grizzlies can climb trees, too, here is Cherokee again, mastering this very scrawny pine. Tank, her mate, waits at the bottom for the daring climb to end. He looks a little bored!

 The tourist industry in Rapid City would yearly host a showing of the various attractions in the area. Each one would have a booth with information, handouts, and folks to man the booth, which we were doing here. Our Bear Country display happened to be right next to the Reptile Gardens booth, which came complete with live examples of what one might see there. This yellow fellow got quite a bit of attention! After a bit of trepidation we weren't too "yellow" to hold him.

 Of course, every tourist attraction needs a mascot. There is a brave teenager in that costume, greeting the tourists, handing out treats for the kids, and even doing a little dance to special "bear" tunes. Bet it was hot in there!

 The bear cubs, usually between 10-15 each summer, were the most popular attraction of all. The tourists would stay lined up along the fence watching the cubs' hilarious antics for long periods of time, moving along reluctantly only when the little guys collapsed into sleep. There would be a young employee standing inside the enclosure several times a day interacting with the cubs and giving a talk about bear life, always very interesting.

I had several "favorite" critters. One was the porcupine. You would think they were not so interesting, with their slow movements and their prickly "stay away from me" coats, but I was fascinated to watch them eat. They would hold their food in their little hands and nibble away much as we would do. They made a soft humming sound towards each other. I will never forget the exciting days we spent at Bear Country, still our favorite job. I wish we could be there still!

Looking Back — Our First Workamper Job

Going through old photos, remembering our earlier workamper jobs, I decided to use some of my best pictures and catch up to where I actually began blogging, in 2008, about our adventures. We moved into our 5th wheel in January of 2005 and left for our first workamping job in June of that year. With great excitement and anticipation, and entering into the unknown, we set off for South Dakota. Crossing Montana was an awesome experience. We fell in love! The early pioneers must have traveled in a wagon much like this one. We found this gorgeous scene near the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument near Hardin MT.

Here we are in our modern covered wagon, much more comfortable, just leaving the 7th Ranch RV Park in Garry Owen MT.

We've arrived safely in Rapid City in the gorgeous Black Hills of South Dakota! I'm talking to my best friends to say, "We're here!" Our employer, Bear Country USA, furnished us with a nice spot at the Lazy J RV Park. What we liked best about this park was that it overlooked the east part of the city and on a clear day we could see almost to the Badlands, an hour away. The sky was always gorgeous with frequent rainbows and awe-inspiring cloud formations.

Our boss, Vanessa, was truly the best boss we could have had for our first job. We will never forget her wonderful and kind treatment of us as we began our workamper job at Bear Country USA, a drive-through wildlife park. It has its walk-through area, too, and the new crop of black bear cubs each summer is probably the largest draw to the park. True to the name, the park has around 250 bears, but there are also many other kinds of animals, mostly North American varieties. In future posts I'll include many other critters.

That's a bear sculpture swatting at the plaster salmon in the waterfall above the otter enclosure, and those are real workampers in our "mule" where we spent our days going from restrooms to gift shop to flower beds, to garbage runs, and, most important, to tourists with questions and needs. The best part was that as we drove around we got to watch the animals all day long. We did spend quite a bit of time watching those adorable bear cubs, too. We loved this job so much that we returned for 2 more summers, 2006 and 2008. The park changed management and no longer has workampers, or we'd be there yet.

We shared cleaning duties with one other workamper couple, Ron and Connie, who trained us and then alternated days with us. It was their second summer at Bear Country. Next to them is Vanessa, and seated is Richard, whose job was to pick up handicapped tourists in his golf cart and drive them around to see the sights. We came to love these fellow workers as well as all the other employees at this wonderful and exciting place.

Mr. Keith looking "cool" in the Mule. 

I have hundreds of photos of the bear cubs. This is one of my favorites. We could, and did, watch them for hours, along with hundreds and thousands of tourists. 
Each spring there are approximately 10 to 15 cubs born. They are taken from the dens at about 2 months old to protect them from the male bears and to accustom them to humans. When they are old enough they are returned to the larger bear population in the drive-through area. Bear cubs are like human toddlers. They play endlessly, entertaining everyone. They are even cute while they are sleeping! Their enclosure had a swimming pool, lots of grass, trees for climbing and logs for scampering over. What fun!

The most amazing animals at Bear Country were the two Grizzly bears, Tank, the male, and Cherokee, his mate. They had a beautiful enclosure with a deep moat for protection, but they seemed almost tame. Tank would wave and do funny things to entertain the onlookers and to get treats. We frequently were asked to throw strawberries, or hotdogs, or muffins to the begging bears, for the enjoyment of the tourists. These grizzlies were located right outside the main restrooms so we got to see them several times a day as we cleaned and checked the facilities. I also have hundreds of photos of Tank and Cherokee and I will share more of them in future posts.

Grizzly Bears!

 We needed a short day trip today because we'd heard there might be some wind and rain in the afternoon. Keith and I spent three summers workamping at Bear Country USA in Rapid City, where we looked at bears all day long, so we thought it would be fun to go to the Grizzly Bear Encounter site just 15 or so miles from Bozeman. 

 We learned there are 5 rescued grizzlies in this enclosure, but they are not all brought out at the same time for the tourists to see because they don't get along. That is typical for grizzlies, somewhat loners. This pretty girl is 2 years old, rescued from Alaska at a very young age when her mother was killed.

 The young man who narrarated the bears' stories and other information about grizzlies gave us some excellent facts about bears, their habits, their intelligence, as well as what to do if we ever encountered one in the wild. I really admired him when I thought about his giving the same talk over and over again as long as the tourists are present!

 The enclosure was not very large, but was well supplied with trees and logs for the bears to climb, rocks and boulders, and a couple of pools for swimming. We enjoyed our time there, watching these magnificent creatures. http://grizzlyencounter.org/

 We drove on to Livingston, a beautiful little town about 30 miles from Bozeman, and 50 miles from the north entrance to Yellowstone National Park. Being faithful KOA folks, we decided to travel down to the Livingston KOA to check it out. It is a pretty park, surrounded by gorgeous mountains. Just outside the park we came upon these deer. They weren't the least bit afraid of us and let us take as many photos as we liked.

 The mountains between Livingston and Yellowstone are the Absaroka Range. They are absolutely stunning! Imagine having a farm or ranch at the foot of these mountains, truly God's country! The white spot in the center of the photo is a sprinkler system watering the fields. Everything is so lush and green.

 

Here is another view of the Absarokas.

We crossed the very full Yellowstone River, flowing north from the park. It was a foggy day, just clearing a bit so that we could see the lovely scenery. I can't wait till we come this way again on our way to actually visiting Yellowstone Park! That is an adventure for another day!