Tell me about your Grizzly Bears.

[fixed blade]

Hi everyone.   I'm a Utah'n so forgive my ignorance, Ive heard you guys in Washington have Grizzly's.   Are there many?   Have there been many unpleasant run ins?   Are they State wide or do they most likely hang out towards the Idaho Boarder?

Also what's the Black Bear population.  It amazes me how easy tags are to get there, im guessing there has to be a good amount.

Thanks in advance for any replies.

[jackelope]

there's a couple grizzly's here in WA...north central to northeastern part of the state.

[fixed blade]

Thanks again Jack.  I think from now on I'll just P.m you my question.

[jackelope]

99% of the people in this state will never see a grizz.

[DOUBLELUNG]

Washington has the largest black bear population in the lower 48.

[high country]

I have seen 2 in the wild, both in the extreme NE corner. neither was real big, one at 5plus foot, one at 6 plus. both had very distinct markings of the family. on one trip through a special area I looked at 13 different black bears in one day. bears are thick here, just be respectful and prepared and you will be fine...be afraid or ignorant and you will have problems.

[NWBREW]

I had this story on another thread. They are in the NE corner but I would be too concerned about them.....unless I walk up on one. 

WOW....100% I actually thought it would be a little harder. Good info thanks bearpaw. I have hunted the NE corner a lot for a very long time.I have never seen a grizz out there I do know a few who have. Last sept. my buddy and I were hanging stands by my place in Northern Stevens county. We went to a tavern to have some refreshments and started talking to a local. He asked where my place was, I told him, and he said keep your eyes open. He said he had seen a grizz run across the road in front of his truck about 1 half mile up from my driveway 2 day earlier. My thought was "Yeah....right....whatever. Here's were it gets a little interesting.

The property next two me is for sale....it borders where my driveway comes in. We saw some people looking at it when we were there so I called John (the local realestate guy) to see if it was sold. He told me No...what had happened was these two guys stopped and looked at it, saw a black bear, yelled at it and it ran away. No big deal.  So they called john and said we like it and want to purchase it. John got all the paper work together and the guys went back out to find survay markers. When they walked back into the brush and timber they walked up on a grizz. They yelled at it but they said all it did was stare them down as they were backing out. They went back...told John what had just happened and they didn't want the property. John told me they were shaking uncontrollably.

The tavern story and John story were 2 days apart. I told John what the guy in the tavern said and all John could say was WOW   be careful out there guys.  Like I say I have never seen a grizz out there but I have seen some huge(and I mean huge) color phase back bears.    OK it was a long story and I'll stop now....just an FYI

[ICEMAN]

I am convinced I observed and photoed one up in the Sawtooth wilderness about 16 years ago. Never seen anything remotely close to a grizzly since.

[Axle]

Had a Griz eat half of my moose in Alaska in '89.

Lots of black bears in WA. Too many.

[high country]

spend some time around the shedroof to muskegon.....your odds of seeing one will go way up.

[Grizzly95]

My cousin has come acrossed them several times up north of Newport while picking berries. Search the web for articles on the guys from Moses Lake that poached one from the same area up north. They claim they didn't know until after the fact, but tried to hide it, bad juju. I am a bear rookie so the way I see it if I am in question about it, let it walk. I have been looking at the difference, but still screw up sometimes.

[high country]

once you see one you will realize that there is a great amount of difference. color and size are the two things that I would never count on....and BIG blacks can have a pretty pronounced hump, however, big blacks lack the distinct dished face and the long, often white looking claws. if you see a bear that has a hump on its back, you need to look for the rest of the identifying marks....and thinking back, the smaller griz did not have a hump that was very big.

[ouchfoss]

I know a family who used to live up in the little remote town of Galena, which is up past the town of Index on the North fork of the skykomish river and supposedly they had seen a dandy grizzly that lives up there and was seen pretty often. I've never seen any pictures to prove that it was a girzzly but I've had several different people tell me that it was FOR SURE a grizz and was big. Makes me wonder though because there is alot of chocolate color-phase black bears in that area and I could understand someone seeing a big chocolate and saying it was a grizzly if they dont know the differences between them.

And like the guy other posted, there is ALOT of black bears here in Washington!!

[Shootmoore]

Lots of Black bear for sure.  Pretty much a sure thing to take a Black bear if you know where to look.  I don't shoot one myself very often but take buddies out that want one regularly.  I think 5 one season was my best year 100% success rate.  I even took a small boar that year for peperoni.

Shootmoore

[boneaddict]

"lots" of grizz in the NE corner.  Rare ones in the Pasayten and occasionally Sawtooth.  There are several pockets I like to play around in up in the NE corner that are full of them.  Very cool critters.  They really don't act or look much like blackbear.  So far I haven't been eatin by one, but I've come close twice.  I calle don into my backpocket which scared the livin blazes out of me and I had one try to take my moose.   As Doublelung stated, we have lots of blackbears.  THey are quite a bit differetn than your Utah bears.   They don't seem to get as big but there are plenty of them.  Lots more colorphase too.