No lie. Here's what happened: my husband, 7-year old son and I were returning from a working mini-vacation in the mountains when we decided to go through a part of Shenandoah National Park (a.k.a. Skyline Drive). We parked near a campground site and saw a sign in the parking lot saying something like "Warning- bear country-secure and close all food containers,or you may have unwelcome visitors!" Well, there were lots of people out, so we didn't worry... too much. We went to take what was supposed to be a relatively peaceful, easy hike on a loop meandering past traces of old orchards and stone walls from a time before the park's existence.We were never too far from civilization-- yet as we walked, it slowly dawned on me that we were completely alone on that particular trail. Then I started getting more and more edgy with every little rustle I heard. I kept telling myself it was just squirrels. And then, it happened. Barely 50 yards to our left, we saw one of these:
I was bringing up the rear of our trio, so by the time I saw it, it had already turned and started to run off. (My husband and son saw it pretty much as it's pictured here!) For a moment I thought it was a large wolf, until my husband corrected me.. "No, that's a bear. THAT IS A BLACK BEAR." My son started to run, but I yelled "NO!Stay with us!" So, with as much appearance of calm as we could muster, we walked quickly away from the scene. It only took us about 15 or 20 minutes to get back, but those were some very tense minutes, I'll tell you. I was never so happy to see a parking lot in all my life.
As if that wasn't crazy enough, as we were driving back down Skyline Drive about 30 minutes later, ANOTHER black bear crossed our path. This time, though, we were safe in our car, and the bear was just zipping across the road. It was...not small. It quickly lumbered across and then scrambled up a very steep bank on the other side in a flash. O_O
Oh, we also saw a fish fossil in a piece of volcanic rock, three deer, two rabbits, a woodchuck and hundreds of butterflies. Today, we learned first-hand that God and his animals are the real owners of that park.