Animal Pictures - RV-Dreams Community Forum

el Rojo and Pam · RV-Dreams Family Member

Animal Pictures

jrzygrl64 · RV-Dreams Family Member

How cool is that? I can hardly wait to get on the road and share the pics we are able to take, animals, scenery, whatever - I just want to get going!

cherylbrv · RV-Dreams Family Member

Weren't you scared? I think I would be!

SnowGypsy · RV-Dreams Family Member

Oh, Cheryl, I agree with you. If I had the courage to try to take the photo, it would have probably been all blurry from me shaking in my boots! Neat photo though.

Frac999 · RV-Dreams Family Member

el Rojo wrote:
I always wanted to see a bear in the wild. This is the only one I've seen so far and I got a pic with the cell phone. We were at Cimmaron Canyon SP in Raton NM.

Just thought I'd share.

Im surprised there is no snow on the ground in that area and the bears are not already hibernating. That's a beautiful area where your at

Terry and Jo · RV-Dreams Family Member

How well I remember Cimarron Canyon. However, it was long before they made a park of it. When I was a youngster, there was a small store in the middle of the canyon that had a log lying horizontally across the stream that was up about 3 feet or so. There was a stream that fed down to the log and someone had used something like an adz to chisel a channel across the top of the log. From what I hear, the log is still there, but the store has been gone for a long time.

It used to be that anyone could camp throughout the canyon, but now only at either end at established camping areas. We used to go up there on a pretty regular basis.

As for bears, I cheated. We stumbled upon one when we were in Alaska in Denali National Park and the tour bus we were on happened to be right at the road when this lady crossed in front of us and began to start digging for a ground squirrel. Pretty soon, there were four tour busses there, so we had to move on so as to "share" the lady with the others. We later found out that she did get the ground squirrel. The bus driver told us that the bears will expend about a quarter of the caloric value of the ground squirrel just digging them out.

Terry

SnowGypsy · RV-Dreams Family Member

Interesting article on the black bear: sandiamountainbearwatch.org/all_about_bears.html and today, it was 58 degrees in NM. I wish I were there bears or not.

el Rojo and Pam · RV-Dreams Family Member

I wasn't scared because I was about 75 yards away and up on the road. This pic was taken 8/24/11 on my Mom's 90th birthday. This is the only pic I got because he ran into the brush.

Terry, I hope to get a bunch of bear shots when we go to Alaska next summer.

Terry and Jo · RV-Dreams Family Member

That was a good article, Cathy. Thanks for posting that.

I really liked that they wrote about the actions of bears during an encounter so that we humans would have a better understanding of what a bear might be considering.

Now, since we'll be moving to an area with both bears and mountain lions, I need to find a similar article about lions.

Terry

cherylbrv · RV-Dreams Family Member

Ok, where's there a good place to live that has no dangerous wild animals, no dangerous lizards (alligators, scorpions) and no mosquitos and gnats?!!!!!

Lucky Mike · RV-Dreams Family Member

biggrin The Museum.....most of them are stuffed!!! biggrin biggrin

Terry and Jo · RV-Dreams Family Member

el Rojo wrote:
I wasn't scared because I was about 75 yards away and up on the road. This pic was taken 8/24/11 on my Mom's 90th birthday. This is the only pic I got because he ran into the brush.

Terry, I hope to get a bunch of bear shots when we go to Alaska next summer.

Red,

A lot depends on where you will be. There are some areas where the Salmon run that have a lot of bears. Others, not so much. While in Denali, the lady above was the closest we got to one, but we did see a male grizzly up on a hillside. I didn't get pictures of him because he was on the opposite side of the bus from where I sat.

Just for funnies, I did have an earlier, and much closer, encounter with a bear in Juneau. Since I had been trying for years to get pictures of bears in the wild, when I encountered this one, I had Jo take a picture of me with the bear. I figured that this might be the closest I came to getting a good picture of a bear. This one even seems friendly.

Terry

Terry and Jo · RV-Dreams Family Member

cherylbrv wrote:
Ok, where's there a good place to live that has no dangerous wild animals, no dangerous lizards (alligators, scorpions) and no mosquitos and gnats?!!!!!

Cheryl,

Don't forget snakes.

Actually, if folks were to educate themselves about the various "wild critters," one has a much better understanding of them and how to act around them. Most bears, for instance, will avoid people if at all possible. With large animals, being a bit noisy helps them to hear approaching humans and they get out of the way themselves. In fact, those of us that are photographers find that we have troubles finding the animals because we just aren't quiet enough, or they may even smell us and move on.

Smaller critters like snakes and such are different. While most won't attack unless crowded, there are exceptions. When walking in the woods, don't step over logs. Step up on them first and look on the opposite side for critters like snakes.

Terry

el Rojo and Pam · RV-Dreams Family Member

cherylbrv wrote:
Ok, where's there a good place to live that has no dangerous wild animals, no dangerous lizards (alligators, scorpions) and no mosquitos and gnats?!!!!!

In Texas most things will sting ya, bite ya or stick ya.

Cathy get article, thanks for posting.

Terry we don't have an itinerary for our 3 month stay in AK. We're going to wing-it. If I see your friendly bear I'll tell him he's now a famous Dreamer. LOL

Jo And Craig · RV-Dreams Family Member

Alaska has no snakes... just bears and other large mammals!!

-- Edited by Mary Sunshine on Tuesday 24th of December 2013 08:15:33 PM

SnowGypsy · RV-Dreams Family Member

I really disliked the commercial about rattle snakes in AZ since it implies that there could be a whole pack of them outside your car. We lived in the desert for 6 years, 3 in a small town in an RV park and then in a mobile home way out in the county and I never once saw a rattle snake. We did have a tarantula outside our mobile home once, awesome, this was huge compared to the ones in captivity and all it wanted to do was hide. Loved the lizards as they ate the ants and other bugs, one I called the "albino" was often by the mailbox. We had a couple of scorpions get in the trailer because we had an opening that I was not aware of. I just "terminated" them. I saw a wild boar once and a coyote cross the yard a few times. While these critters scared me, it was such a high since I love nature even the spiders and snakes! I miss AZ, we are thinking of going back.

el Rojo and Pam · RV-Dreams Family Member

Most snakes will retreat if they have time, just like bears. It's when we surprise them we get in to trouble or when too often its "hold my beer..I'm gonna get him" LOL

You know you're a redneck if you ever said "hold my beer, what this!".

-- Edited by el Rojo on Wednesday 25th of December 2013 09:02:16 AM

NWescapee · RV-Dreams Family Member

Cheryl - Ha Ha, very few areas without some danger, however, the Western side of WA / OR might be close. Only black bears, no poison snakes or lizards, no alligators, but RAIN!! Lots and Lots of Rain.

NWescapee · RV-Dreams Family Member

Another suggestion, if you want to see bears head for Mammoth Lakes CA!! We had one eating on the golf course right next to the park where our show was last year. A little scary, especially since our RV was parked for the weekend between the park and golf course. Yep, we stayed inside at night. Info all over town to be aware of the bears, don't leave food in the car, etc. We know several artists who have done the 3 art shows in Mammoth Lakes for years and they all have bear tales to share.

We've also seen bears in Glacier National Park, grizzly and black bears. I spent 4 summers in college there so I've seen a few grizzlies, had 2 encounters that were a little too close for comfort when hiking over those 4 summers, so while I love to see them in the wild, I am very wary of them.

We've also seen black bears in the North Cascades national park, nothing like walking along a paved 1/2 mile trail to a picnic location right off the highway, carrying the picnic lunch, hear a racket in the underbrush and realize we have a black bear watching us walk along this trail with with our lunch. We were wondering what he was wanting for lunch, us or the picnic bag.