Backpacking Yellowstone / Gallatin Range, Fawn Pass, Electric Pass, Sportsman Lake 

Thank you so much, it was one of the highlights of that trip. I hope to make it back up there again someday, hopefully explore beyond shelf lake & up on the sky rim.

When I got a few minutes up the trail & could assure myself he was long gone, I’d never felt more alive in all my years! Not an experience I’d recommend though.

Glad you enjoyed it. That's such a beautiful section of wilderness that very few visitors ever wander into. That grizzly encounter definitely had me thinking twice about hiking through there solo again!

It was such a wild ordeal, I've always known they were fast and heard about how encounters happen quickly. It's not like I didn't believe it, but experiencing was so eye opening & humbling. I did another big trip a few weeks after this one, and there's so much of the landscape I see through a whole different lens now.

Thank you for the kind words. We actually had a very brief conversation after this trip, that ended with me buying an inreach mini. I’d been meaning to get one for a while but kept putting it off. I used it a few weeks late on my Thorofare trip, it did provide some peace of mind for everyone but also allowed a group of us to meet up on a snake river campsite, near the end of the trip which was a lot of fun. I’ll try to have that one up in a few weeks, I stayed out 9 days & had another grizzly encounter! Not as close as this one was thankfully.

Great video. Gives me some insight to an area I've been wanting to hike. Someday I will get into that area.

I was a little rattled from the experience, so my description in the video was a bit scattered. After the trip I looked up as many grizzly photos as I could find & the one I saw matched the images I was seeing of sub-adult males as best I could tell, but I could very well be incorrect about that. As best I could tell we were likely we were likely traveling toward each other from opposite directions, and he wasn’t expecting to see people in the area. I believe I was being too quiet, accidentally got too close & spooked him. After the encounter, I put my camera away until I was probably half a mile up the trail. Coming down from Fawn Pass there trail was slightly muddy & I didn’t see any signs of the trail being used at all, until after the run-in, I did see bear tracks going the opposite way from me, which I assume were his. I wish I’d thought to take a few photos of them. It was about 3.8 miles east of Fawn Pass, the area was mostly open, with some scattered trees & brush. There was maybe a 6’ drop down to the water with bushes etc. obscuring the view down to the water. I heard a loud rustling & then saw him explode out of there immediately after. If you’d like you’re free to shoot me a message mikebaesher@gmail.com I could send the coordinates of where it happened, and any other info as best i can recall.

@@shredhiker6209 thanks for the information. To bad you didn’t spot him earlier. It would be interesting to know what he was doing down at the creek. My guess is he was doing nothing down there but was just crossing and heading your direction by chance.

@@StanMills I was hiking downhill too, if I had noticed him before I got too close, it could've been a great chance to observe him from a distance. This was definitely a lesson, not to get complacent or let my guard down.

@@shredhiker6209 what I would like to figure out is why the grizzly bluff charged you if there was any reason that you know of. I am not saying you did anything wrong because you need to do what is best for you. But from all of the info you talked about so far there is no indication of a reason on the bears part. Maybe it was already upset about something. But it seems like some times there is no obvious reason, they just don’t like your presence maybe. But if you can think of anything, I would like to know. Thanks for your responses.

@@StanMills I can't really say for certain. When he came running up from the creek, I was probably within 30 ft of him, having no idea he was there of course. Even though the area was fairly open, that particular spot was fairly loud with the water running and visibility down there wouldn't have been great. Why he bluff charged instead of just running off, I can't begin to understand though. The encounter lasted maybe 10 seconds, and I got out of the area immediately after.