Mt Rainier Wildlife.
As I mentioned the other day regarding our Labor Day (my wife and I) time walking some trails on Mt Rainier - there was also some wildlife to be seen. In one of the previous pictures there was a bee on the flower.
As we were walking there were many crickets on the path. Some were difficult to see, as they seemed to be the same brown as the path. Others, though, were easier to pick out, as they had more colors, which made them very visible.
Then there were the Marmots. Though there are lots of signs telling people not to feed the animals, I don't think the marmots can read. In one case, there was a family sitting on a rock eating a snack, and the marmot, came up the back side of the rock and appeared to be checking to see if he was going to be able to get some lunch also.
Then there was the real excitement. There was a bear, who was having lunch on the side of a hill. He was wandering back and forth for a while, apparently sampling the various berries that were available there. He was doing this just a bit above one of the trails, so some folks got a very close up view of him. Then he started
moving off to the side. I was fortunate enough to be able to get a few shots as he was going down the hill (and my camera even let me get a couple short videos -- however the quality isn't very good, when trying to hold camera, with the zoom extended to its maximum.) Then the bear came down the other side of the valley from the path we were on, and I was able to get a couple more shots. As he was coming down, the marmots were whistling warnings to each other, about this predator being nearby.
My wife made sure everyone who was coming up the trail knew there was a bear for them to see. This meant we stayed near the end of the paved path for over half an hour, helping people to see him on the far side of the valley, as he worked his way up the hill. Interestingly, there was another hiking trail at that top of that hill.
Later, as we were heading down to the parking lot, we could see a large traffic jam across another valley, and looking over there, spotted another bear right at the edge of a rock scree, and since the bushes were apparently a bit taller over there, did not get to see much of him, as he moved into the brush, and would only pop out a bit for a short period of time.
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