Black Bear eating birdseed in Morrison/Evergreen, CO

Thursday morning at 2:00 am, my wife pushed me out of bed when one of our bird feeders crashed to the ground.  I am a deep sleeper and didn’t hear a thing, but I dutifully got up and walked groggily to the window to see what was up.

I found a bear crouching on the edge of our patio scooping up all the bird seed.  With my heart racing and adrenaline pumping I checked the sliding glass doors which we sometimes leave open.  Fortunately, they were closed and the bear didn’t seem to care about me.  Then I went for the camera and was able to get this photo before my wife told me to stop taking pictures and get that bear out of her garden…

I am not much of a match for a 400 lb black bear, but I grabbed the first thing I could find – a broom – and started to open the sliding glass door.  Fortunately, the bear was more afraid of me than I was of him.  He hopped over the wall and climbed a big pine tree about fifteen feet away.

By this time, my whole house was up and gawking.  One of our dogs got out and was racing around our deck barking her head off (fortunately, she never got close to the bear).  We all watched the bear watch us from the tree for the next 15 minutes.  It kept snorting and huffing – I assume to warn us to stay away – although we didn’t need much encouragement.  I kept my eyes on him while I made a few short dashes out to collect our bird feeders and sweep away the remains of the bird seed that he had started eating.

Finally, he climbed down the tree and ambled away.

We have lived in the foothills of Conifer and Evergreen for fifteen years and have seen several bears and even a mountain lion.  We just returned from a trip to Alaska where we saw lots of black bears and brown bears eating salmon, but this one was a little close to home.  I haven’t started looking for a realtor yet, but you never know.

We enjoyed an excellent hike today at the Elk Meadow Park, a Jefferson County Open Space Park.  Although the park was a little busy, we found that the higher we went, the fewer people we saw.  We ended up hiking a total of seven miles in about three hours.

The snow and rain over the last couple of months has really done its job.  Everywhere we looked was green and moist.  It almost makes you wonder if you are still in Colorado.  We saw a number of wildflowers and flowering bushes.  Lots of yellow, white and blue to highlight the green.  In addition, we were amazed by the amount of white quartz.  Some huge specimens that almost glowed.  In some places, it looked like snow was still holding on the hill.  One of the most beautiful pieces of quartz that I found had veins of red and even some of the white quartz looked a little cloudy with the red.

And the views were tremendous!  We were watching the whole time as the clouds moved in, but it made the views look even more dramatic.  Unfortunately, the thunder and impending storm kept us from getting to the top of Bergen Peak, but it still was an excellent workout.  The good news is that we had made it back to the bottom just as the rain really started to come down.

We are so lucky that Jeffco has spent the money and resources to develop the open space system.  Do yourself a favor – take advantage of it!

Mountain View from near the Top of Bergen Peak