Unexpected Travel Guests: BEARS!!!!

Sunday afternoon everyone left (Mikayla left Sunday morning to fly back to Houston for work) headed out to hike up to Chimney Tops.  Jonathan and David hiked faster ahead, dad and I were in the middle, and Abi & Alex were far behind doing more photography (Mikayla flew back to TX this morning).  Dad and I met a momma bear and her two cubs today 20-30 yards in front of us at a corner in the trail (which was fairly steep).  She looked right at us and we kept walking (and praying for other's protection 😉).  Abi and Alex met her and her cubs later on about 15 or so yards away and got some good pictures.  On the way down, dad, Alex and I met a fourth bear, looked like a teenager, not too far off.  

To give perspective, this is the momma and one cub in front of dad and I.  The black blob just above the mostly horizontal fallen tree in the middle is the momma and the blob to the right of the tree is one of the cubs.  Way up top in the tangle of the trees, both straight up and to the left, is the same trail (as pictured later).  

This is the same trail as the picture above, just taken a bit further back and about 10 minutes later by Abi and Alex.  The momma and one cub are now on the same mostly horizontal fallen tree.  

 

 

If you will notice right in the middle of this picture there appears to be a triangle of trees.  In that triangle are two black dots in the distance.  The dot on the right is the trunk of a fallen tree.  However the dot on the left is the fourth bear dad and I saw on the way back down from Chimney Tops.  

This is a short video I took from the upper side of the trail (as referred to earlier) of the two cubs.  Momma bear was hard to see from my angle and I do not think appears in this video.  But I found the cubs to be quite cute and cuddly looking.