Things to Know When Visiting Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks

The snow is starting to melt in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, and with the reemergence of grass and plants come visitors from all over the world to Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park, among others. To locals of Jackson Hole, it’s a love/hate relationship mostly because the tourism keeps the local economy quite healthy, but most visitors are completely ignorant of how to behave around wildlife, causing many problems both seen and unseen. Please read on and share this with anyone you know visiting this area, or any national park, so that we can all take better care of our national parks and public lands.

First and foremost, DO NOT FEED THE WILDLIFE. They’ve consistently had plenty of food at the very least for thousands and thousands of years now, so they really don’t need a piece of your bread. No matter how thin they might appear, they’ll find some food when they need it. In fact, you can remember it this way: If you feed it, you kill it. Seems like the opposite right? A little food could only help, couldn’t it? Not with wild animals. If it’s a smaller critter like a squirrel or marmot, for example, it will begin to associate humans with food handouts and will beg more people for food, and naturally there will be more people who think it’s cute and therefore deserves food, thus giving it more food. The problem comes when winter sets in and people disappear for at least eight months. Since it had assumed people would continue just giving it food, it failed to stockpile food like it normally would and winds up starving to death. With larger animals, especially predatory animals, they will also associate humans with food and since they recognize they have some attacking power, will go to all lengths to get something it doesn’t get on a regular basis. Once it gets dangerous, the park service (or forest service if you’re outside of a national park) will have no choice but to put it down for being too aggressive. So please, do not feed any wildlife at all. Despite how they might look, they will be fine. Leading right into the second point…

Bears are wild. This is not a zoo and every animal you see in this ecosystem has a life independent of anybody’s schedules or responsibilities. They answer to their own instincts and nothing else. While black bears might appear more docile, they do attack. Grizzly bears are not so docile and are very territorial. If you don’t know the difference between a black bear and a grizzly bear, play it safe and assume it’s a grizzly bear and keep your distance. 99.9999% of bear incidents occur because someone is acting irresponsibly around a bear. Every mauling you hear about is because someone was doing something they shouldn’t have been doing around a bear, and/or either didn’t have bear spray easily accessible, or didn’t have bear spray at all. If you plan on hiking or going for a walk away from your car or buildings, a $40 can of bear spray is practically (should be) a requirement. If you think a gun is more effective than bear spray, think again. Bear spray will keep you safe from a bear (when used properly – ask when you buy it how to use it), but is no excuse for disrespecting a bear. You wouldn’t want some stranger barging in on your house telling you how to behave for a photo, for example, so don’t do it to them. They’re the kings of the North American natural world and if you don’t respect them as such, they’ll remind you. The simplest rule when it comes to bears is just to respect them, and you’ll be fine.

Moose are more dangerous than bears. This comes as a surprise to many people because moose, though very large and grand, appear very laid-back. Many times, they will be just that. If they want their space though, they don’t hesitate to get it. Both males and females, particularly females with young, will stomp you to death if you get too close and they don’t want you there. Males will also get their antlers involved. In Alaska, moose are responsible for more deaths than both brown (similar to grizzly) and black bears combined. It’s a similar ecosystem here, so the same rules apply. They’re incredibly large and powerful and misbehaving around them will get them to show you first-hand just how powerful they are. Moose love the colds of winter so the heat of summers are more stressful on them. Just like with any animal, when they’re stressed, their tempers are short. Also just like with any other animal, if you show them respect and keep a safe distance, they’ll be happy to get in your pictures.

Stay in your cars when viewing roadside wildlife. Many times in both Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone National Park, you’ll see many animals along the roads. They’re not there because a ranger wants to surprise you with nature, but rather, they’re trying to get from Point A to Point B, and a road is either crossing their route, or walking the road is much easier than walking through bushes and trees. If they’re resorting to the latter, it most likely means that they’re already a little stressed, otherwise they wouldn’t be bothering with cars and traffic. If an animal is already stressed, such as in that instance, its temper is already short. If it wants space and you’re not giving it space, it will attack. This is how many bison incidents occur, among other animals. If an animal or animals are crossing the road, you’ll see them run across the road because they know the road is a dangerous place. If you’re in their way, or if they feel like you are, they’ll recognize that you’re the smaller animal and do what’s necessary for their survival. This is also directly related to the next point…

If an animal, or animals, are staring at the road, they want to cross. I see it countless times in both the Tetons and Yellowstone: A herd of animals is on one side of the road staring at the other side, but one car after another piles up right in their path because it makes a good picture when you’re right in front of them. True enough, but you’re causing this animal an unimaginable amount of stress. There was even an instance a few years back where wolves were chasing an elk herd in Willow Flats of Grand Teton National Park and because a line of cars had lined up to watch the incident, the elk had nowhere to escape to. Pileups like that happen frequently with bears, elk, bison, moose, etc. Imagine if you were dehydrated and all you wanted to do was to get to your kitchen to get some water, but someone put up a wall to get to it and every time you went to get around it, it moved with you. Animals have the right of way every time because they’re having a much harder time getting to their destination than you are, no matter how much traffic is upsetting you. If you see a herd of animals, or a single animal staring at the other side of the road but cautiously not crossing because of cars, either stop short of the animal(s) or pull up ahead and look back. If you’re lucky enough to be around people that will follow suit, you’ll see the animal(s) happily run across the road.

SLOW DOWN! It doesn’t matter how late you think you are or how slow you think traffic is moving, if you don’t slow down your day is going to get a whole lot worse. At best, you’ll get a ticket from a ranger for speeding, not because they’re just looking for people to pull over and don’t have anything better to do, but because they have a much better reason for wanting people to slow down than in any city. As mentioned, wildlife crosses the road frequently, and especially at night. This past winter alone, there were six moose killed because of speeders in just a two-mile span of a highway just east of Jackson. Summertime totals are even more sobering. Migrating wildlife frequently cross roads, as do bears and moose in search of food. Many use the roads at night and people speeding typically can’t react fast enough to save the animal. There’s absolutely no destination that’s more important than the life of an animal. What’s your rush anyway? Slow down, enjoy your time here, and both you and wildlife will have a much happier encounter as a result.

Finally, respect nature. If you’ve read this far, then it should go without saying by this point that nature has it a little harder than you do and thus, deserves respect. While you might be out stressing about which restaurant to eat at, or making reservations, nature is stressing about having dinner at all (but that’s still no excuse to feed them – they’ll make it). All animals are constantly doing the best they can to live a healthy and happy life, and human interference is the one factor that makes it a little more stressful. However, with proper education and understanding about the animals and their needs, you can help them live happily ever after. Please remember that when driving through Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks, or any wild area, that you are a visitor in their home. Respect nature, and it will respect you, every time.