Day 20- Montana Grizzly Encounter

This is it!!!! The big day. We’re going to see Brutus. Now, for those of you who are not familiar with Brutus, well he’s a minor celebrity. The 9 ½ year old, 900 + lbs Coastal Brown Bear ( large grizzly ) has been hand raised since he was about 4 months old by Casey Anderson and his wife, Missy. Brutus has done a couple of movies, lots of public service announcements about bear proof campsites and he was the co-star of a Nat Geo series called Expedition Wild. Brutus is a big deal in our family so when we knew we were headed through Montana, I had to stop at Montana Grizzly Encounter, home of Brutus, Sheena, Maggie and Jake, all captive born grizzlies. Once we arrived, we found out the Encounter had just returned from Alaska where they have adopted their first wild born abandoned cub who is 5 months old. Maggie and Jake were in the enclosure when we arrived. Normally they are out from 10-2 and then Brutus and Sheena are allowed their turn, from 2 until closing, to play in the yard, bathe in the pools and hunt for treats hidden all over the enclosure. I think we were there about an hour and a half. I took about 80 photos of the bears and had a great time just watching them. I was disappointed with their location though. I thought they would be miles off the highway but, instead, they are visible from the highway. Brutus has a long haul trucker fan club. When he’s standing up on the hill, he can see them and they honk when they see him. It just wasn’t what I had envisioned. Another equally interesting item, it took us until Montana to see our first bald eagles. And, all along our route of travel today, we witnessed swollen and flooding rivers, the Shoshone, Yellowstone and Missouri. Record snows last winter and unusual rainfall has made quite a mess of the northern states. Back on the road, we ran into a lot of construction so called it a day about 45 miles before our intended destination. We had been shooting for a rest area in Wolf Creek, Montana but settled for a Wal-Mart in Helena, MT. We’re having trouble with the generator running the air conditioning. I think it’s an altitude issue but will have to find an RV service place to get it checked out. It’s hot, I’m miserable and even the air conditioning in the store doesn’t really do anything for me. Tomorrow, we head to Glacier National Park.