Two recent extreme weather events in Boulder have affected the local bear food supply.  First, Boulder suffered a brutal freeze last fall -- it went from 60 degrees to -11 in two days and then stayed cold for a week.  Then, a late freeze in the spring further affected budding bushes and trees.  These two events affected many trees in Boulder including our two big elm trees in our yard.  More importantly, however, they wiped out this year's crop of apples, plums, choke cherries and other berries that normally supply bears with critical nutrients for their "hibernation".  The result is that we've seen many more bears rummaging through the trash in our neighborhood.  For a week in late August, we saw bears almost nightly.  We were able to photograph this one while he/she was sorting through medical waste near our house and while I was thrilled to take the picture, I was bummed that he/she was learning "bad" behavior.  Our parks and wildlife agency is pretty tough on bears and we hoped that by harassing it a bit (with the flash) that we were able to discourage him/her from coming back.  Thank heavens the medical office eventually closed up their dumpster and, for the past two months, we haven't seen any in the neighborhood.

In 1986 Andy and I began the tradition of taking our picture at the top of Trailridge Road every summer.  This year marked the 30th time!  While technically it is considered the 29th annual picture, it is a streak that keeps us on our toes.  My hip started to hurt a lot at the beginning of the summer and I worried that I might not be able to make it up the 236 steps to the top.  Luckily, there was a VERY strong (50-70mph) wind that kept us focusing on the task of staying upright and I was able to ignore my hip!  As always, we had a great time watching the wildlife in the park and were impressed by the number of male elk and sheep participating in "friendly sparring" in preparation for the rut.  Below are some of our favorite pictures from our annual picture trip and two other day trips to the park. (Click on an image to enlarge and play as slide show).