A Wildlife Safari in Grand Teton National Park

If it weren't for our guide, I would have never noticed the cottonwood tree branches shaking ever so slightly.

It was a fluke, really. Our wildlife safari guide had stopped our vehicle alongside the road, allowing me to take a picture of the stunning foliage that dominates much of Grand Teton National Park this time of year.

As I was searching for just the right shot, our guide, Stacie Bellairs, announced (much to my surprise) that we were merely a few feet from a bear.

The black bear was just outside the passenger side of our van, half-way up a tree, munching on berries. Who knew that my desire to take a run-of-the-mill picture would lead to the highlight of the entire four-hour safari!

Though spotting a bear in the wild was among the top items on my wish list when I booked a sunset safari with Teton Science Schools, I didn't actually believe we would see one of these magnificent animals.

Earlier in the week, during a drive up to nearby Yellowstone National Park, my son and I briefly saw a black bear with two cubs along the side of the road. That sighting was entirely due to the hundreds (and I do mean hundreds), of people lining the road, who were being kept away from the bear by park rangers and a series of orange traffic cones.

This bear sighting during the wildlife safari was far more special: It was just us and the bear, at least for the first several minutes.

We sat quietly observing the awe-inspiring animal as it shook the tree in search of more berries. Every so often, it would sit up tall and feast on his handful of food while looking squarely in our direction. Whether it saw us or was even bothered by our presence is unclear. The bear just kept busily rustling trees and enjoying its afternoon snack while I tried to quickly take a few pictures.

Before long, a park ranger came driving along behind us and shooed us onward, as stopping your car in the middle of park roads is not allowed.

Still, the brief encounter was easily the most memorable part of our safari experience in Grand Teton National Park, if not my entire trip to Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

A valley between the Teton Mountain Range and the Gros Ventre Range, Jackson Hole attracts countless tourists each year who come to explore the vast wilderness of both Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Park.

Both of these national parks are spectacular and filled with a variety of wildlife including buffalo, elk, wolves, grizzly bears, black bears, and mule deer.

Wanting to make my son's visit truly memorable and increase our odds of seeing one of these animals, I opted to book a guided wildlife safari. While there are many companies in the valley that offer such excursions, I ultimately chose Teton Science School because of its foundation as an educational institution that has been teaching about the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem since 1967.

On the morning of the eagerly anticipated outing, it was pouring rain, which I thought for sure would mean zero animal sightings. But that had no impact on the animal's activity or the amount of wildlife we spotted.

If anything, the animals-which tend to come out when it is darker and cooler-were more visible and active thanks to the rain, according to our guide. It was only the humans who were put off by the cold, wet, weather.

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As we drove into the park, our guide explained that elk and deer are among the most abundant animals in Grand Teton. There are fewer bison here, as they tend to stay in Yellowstone where the geyser basin keeps temperatures warmer and more inviting. The bison that do live in Grand Teton tend to migrate up to Yellowstone come winter.

Bellairs also explained that, if we were lucky, we might even hear some elk bugling during our safari, which is the mating call of the elk.

The first stop of our safari was along the banks of a river leading into Grand Teton, where we briefly braved the rain to search for moose. After a few minutes of walking and not spotting anything, we hopped back in the van and moved on, deeper into the park.

In between quietly taking in the park's breathtaking scenery, Bellairs and I discussed the fact that grizzly bears were recently removed from the endangered species list, a move that was controversial and opposed by many wildlife advocates.

There are about 600 hundred grizzlies in Yellowstone and 60 in Grand Teton, Bellairs explained, and they eat things like whitebark pine trees. But with the increasing effects of climate change, which has resulted in longer and warmer summers, a particular species of beetle has been proliferating and killing off the trees.

"The number of whitebark pine trees being destroyed is a concern," Bellairs said.

In addition, an invasive species known as lake trout have been killing off another grizzly food source, the cutthroat trout. It is for all of these reasons and more that organizations focused on the survival of the grizzly population are upset about them being removed from the endangered species list.

One of the next stops on our safari was to watch a herd of elk grazing. They were far from the road and hard to see without binoculars, but it was our first sighting of the day so I considered it a score.

[READMORE]READ MORE: Overcrowding Threatens Future of Yellowstone[/READMORE]

Moose and elk are among the most common animals spotted on these tours Bellairs said. But the animals you see on any given tour can vary based on the time of day and even the season. Fall is a time when animals are often more active, with male animals regularly seen fighting during the height of mating season. Spring is a good time to observe newly born animals.

We also learned that as the animals are eating to build up their reserves for winter, humans endlessly stopping and watching, taking pictures and standing nearby gawking can be disruptive.

"This time of year, eating for their winter survival is very important," Bellairs explained. "Human stress is very bad for them. If they have to keep looking up while they're eating to assess the danger [of humans who are standing nearby], then they are not eating as much as they should be."

For that reason, Bellairs often kept us a safe distance from the animals we spotted, giving them their space so as not to stress them out in our pursuit of a memorable animal sighting.

Not long after seeing the herd of elk, we stumbled upon a cluster of mule deer grazing very close to the road. Only a handful of others had discovered the deer, which made for a very peaceful viewing experience. Two of the male deer felt comfortable enough in front of us to begin playing, locking antlers and tussling with each other, all of which provided the chance to take a couple of excellent photos.

With dusk quickly approaching, we turned up one last small side road where we hoped to spot a few more animals before our safari concluded.

As we drove, Bellairs explained that female bears have learned if they stay close to roadways, their cubs will have a greater chance of survival. In general, the survival rate for cubs hovers around 15 percent. That's because male bears eat the cubs. But male bears also tend to avoid humans, which is why females bring the cubs to patches of forest closest to the roads traversed by so many of us.

It was along this side road, our last turn of the day, that we spotted the black bear. My son and I were gleeful, enjoying several precious minutes of closely watching the stunning creature. It was a remarkable experience to see this animal in the wild instead of a zoo.

Before long, a crowd began to arrive and our moment of communing with the bear had passed.

We didn't hear any elks bugling as I had hoped. But we did spot that black bear, an experience my son and I will not likely forget anytime soon.

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