Lions, Tigers, and BEARS!

I was a little disappointed in the wildlife in Banff, truth be told.  Yes, we saw a herd of elk our first night there.  BUT, they talk about the animals just walking down the mainstreet of Banff.  Never saw that.  Except for the horses that pulled carriages.  I mean, the entire town has bear proof trash cans outside.  No big animals.  Sigh.   We did, however, have three (possibly four) bear sightings in our time in Canada.  Two while we were in Banff, one or two in EC Manning.  

This was our first bear sighting.  There was a large crowd pulled over on the side of the road, and experience has taught us that means a big animal is nearby, so we joined them.  I immediately got this photo.  About five minutes after this photo, rangers shooed us all away. An exciting way to start our day trip out to Lake Louise.         I apparently deleted the other picture of a bear in Banff.  So sad.  But as we were driving to Jasper, we caught sight of more people stopping on the side, and the bear was right there at the fence line.  We didn't stop that time, but we were happy to get the chance to see another bear.  The third bear sighting (?) was on our hike of Frosty Mtn Trail, where K thinks she saw a bear.  Very exciting to think we were that close to a bear, but I'm very happy it was just a vague sighting and not a bigger encounter!   Our fourth sighting scared the daylights out of me.  Much like a deer might shock you by jumping out into the road, this little bear jumped out of the forest onto the side of the road, where (I'm thankful) he stayed while we drove by.  Bill did slam on the brakes and swerve just to make sure we didn't do damage, and it took me five minutes or so to calm down, but we all ended the encounter safe and sound.