Lions, Tigers and Bears

Okay, not so much tigers but I'm talking REAL lions and REAL bears!

My sister-in-law Raedene has cute parents who live north of Cortez on about 70 acres of land... where the elevation increases slightly and the population decreases. Her parents invited us and a few others to a Switzerlandian Mountain Goat roast. Sounds fun right? The meat was pretty good, and tasted mostly like beef.

After dinner the kids wanted to take a nature walk down the canyon. The adult tour guide (aka another parent) wasn't interested in taking children under the age of 8 down (aka my child). So Raedene offered to go and I said I would tag along.

As we were walking Readene informed us of the old black bear who was residing in the area. I don't think they have actually seen him, but have spotted tracks and had fur stuck in the barbed wire. Either way, I was nervous the whole trip down. After about 15 min of walking we stopped at a picnic bench her parents set up near a small lake (I like to call it a watering hole). This is about the time Olivia started dancing like she needed to go potty. Great, my newly potty trained 3 year old is a mile from a bathroom, how am I going to convince her to go potty in a bush. After trying to talk her into it she promised me she didn't need to go and we headed back to the house.

I remember getting in the car and looking at the clock because Jeff was stuck back at the house with a not too happy Landon and I realized it was way past his bedtime (Landon's not jeff's). It was 8:30! Sorry Jeff...

Sunday Raedene informed me that this is what her parents camera snapped the same night of our nature walk...

Are you kidding me?? Can you tell that's a mountain lion? Notice the time stamp. A little over an hour after we were at this small lake (watering hole) this is what their motion camera caught! We had been standing RIGHT there! He was sniffing our scent I know it, and now he knows what I smell like!! Pretty sure I'm never taking a nature walk again! Unless someone around me has a gun or slingshot or even a cell phone!

Oh my!