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Montana Grizzly Encounter
Montana Grizzly Encounter is a grizzly bear rescue sanctuary that allows visitors a safe way to closely view these majestic animals, while also learning about bear safety and nature conservation. Don't confuse Montana Grizzly Encounter with the Montana Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center. These two great Grizzly sanctuaries are 100 miles apart in Montana, which can take anywhere between two and three hours depending on the road conditions. Montana Grizzly Encounter is just outside of Bozeman, MT, whereas Grizzly & Wolf Discovery is in West Yellowstone near the Yellowstone National Park west entrance. I bring this up because the first time I visited the Grizzly Encounter, I had actually driven past the exit the previous day when we were actually looking for something to do in the late afternoon that didn't require a large time commitment. I thought it was a billboard for something 100 miles away as there are quite a few billboards in the area for Yellowstone since Bozeman is the major airport nearest Yellowstone National Park. Now that that's out of the way, let's get back to the Grizzly Encounter just outside of Bozeman...
The Grizzly Encounter is convenient not only because of how close it is to Bozeman, granted we had rented a vehicle, which is highly recommended, but also because of the price and admittance. As of this writing, anyways, you pay for a selected time to enter the Montana Grizzly Encounter and can stay for as long as you want. There is an educational talk and information about the current grizzly and others that somewhat repeats about every hour, but you can stay as long as you want. Even better, though, is you can leave and come back for the rest of the day, and also the rest of the next day! We actually tried to come back the next day to catch a different grizzly being out in the observation area, but for the safety of the bears the park had to close early due to lightning. I think they have this policy because even though there are many grizzlies there, only one or two bears (if they've grown up together and get along) are in the observation area at a time, while the others are nice and comfy in their own dens. They don't rotate frequently all day, but have a rotation after a few hours of enrichment for whoever is out for the public.
During our visit, we got to observe Max, a very playful Grizzly that was just three years old when we visited and still growing. He was already 800 lbs and 7' tall at the time! He was very active and seemed to love playing with his logs and toys and taking a dip in his pond. There is plenty of space for everyone to get a good look, and they limit the number of tickets for the initial entrance time so things don't get too crowded. Max tossed around a log (like it was a tiny branch) for quite a while, and used it to scratch up against. It was also entertaining in that he seemed to love to throw his log in the pond to make a splash just like young toddlers do. It was a little warmer day, so he eventually went for a dip in the pond too. He was having a great time with a large bobber that he kept trying to hold under water. I swear he smiled when he held it down for a longer time and seemed pretty proud of himself!
Montana Grizzly Encounter Education and Wrapping it Up
The day wasn't just about observing a very active Grizzly, though. There are team members that are speaking about the bears and their histories, along with their personalities, as well as bear safety. The bears at the Montana Grizzly Encounter are deemed unable to survive in the wild by themselves, which is how they come to be in the sanctuary as animal ambassadors to help educate us humans. These are still wild animals, but tame due to their lifestyles. The team members educate you on bear safety when encountering a bear in the wild (or avoiding an encounter all together). As beautiful and majestic as Montana wildlife is, and seemingly "tame," those out in nature are STILL WILD ANIMALS and not tame pets to be approached. But, back to the education, one of the best things is avoiding a wild encounter at all, as to not startle a bear in the wild and be perceived as a threat. They give much better advice than just being faster than someone in your group, which is probably the most common answer (sometimes sincere, sometimes jokingly) to "What do you know about Bear safety?" The other fun one is that bear spray is not used the same way as bug spray, it's not a repellant that you spray on yourself! One the randomly interesting things I learned is that you can rent bear spray. This is a cool program in Montana as you hopefully won't need it, but it's better to have it than not if you do need it. There are multiple pickup/drop off points where you don't have to return to the same place, either, which is nice. Just a few highlights of what is talked about there. The portions specific to the bears and the sanctuary itself are also very interesting, with some pretty entertaining stories about some of the behavior of the bears now, as some of the grizzlies seemingly play to the crowd or mess with the crowd.
I've rambled on enough, though. The Montana Grizzly Encounter is just one of the many places you should try to make time to visit if you are in the area. It's a great opportunity to get a really close look at the massive grizzlies. It's not exclusive to Montana (and, as I stated earlier, not even exclusive in Montana), but a rare opportunity for a close-up with a grizzly playfully enjoying life and the attention they get.
Check them out at grizzlyencounter.org.
80 Bozeman Hill Rd. | Bozeman, Montana 59715 | 1.406.586.8893