Steamboat Wildlife-A-Rama

I'll have a little bear with my morning coffee please!  Nothing like sitting out on your deck with a cup of java enjoying the mountain views and watching your local 450 pound bear having a big breakfast berry snack.  You get real quiet, sip coffee real slowly and gaze in total wonder.  Even my cat Matt sitting on the deck decided to forgo his early morning rounds and just hang out in a frozen state next to me. Over the years in Steamboat Springs, I have seen dozens of bears, but this one was one of the most magnificent ever.  Huge, healthy with a very black shiny coat, he/she was a creature of beauty.  The sarvice berries and other berries that are past peaking right now are one of the bears' main staples.  My bear encounter lasted only 10 minutes, just enough time to finish my coffee.  He/she after consuming mass quantites of berries, sauntered off towards the Steamboat ski mountain in search of more tasty breakfast snacks.   

One of the wonderful things about living in Steamboat Springs, Colorado is the amount of wildlife that surrounds our town and mountain areas. Respecting wildlife means securing your trash, not feeding or trying to make pets of wild animals, is one of the first things you learn about when you move here. (We actually had seasonal neighbors behind us from Florida feed the bears, the foxes and the...skunks! Not sure if they thought they were in a Colorado Disney petting zoo? They were advised that this was not a good thing. But warnings fell on deaf ears. They thought is was cute to feed the bears pizza, no harm done. They didn't think it was cute when weeks later, a bear broke through the kitchen door screen and started eating cereal and pop tarts in their kitchen...probably looking for the pizza. The Division of Wildlife was called and the bear was captured, tranquilized and transported to another area. The Florida part-time neighbors were clueless they instigated this behavior). 

Besides, foxes, racoons, coyotes (only wildlife I don't like), deer, elk, moose, mountain lions, the lastest rumor is the wolves are here!  The descendants of the wolves that were released years ago in Yellowstone have suposedly made their way from northern Wyoming to here. Steamboat Springs is approximately 40 miles due south of the southern Wyoming border. Official wolf sightings have been reported in Craig and Walden Colorado.  A friend claims she saw one up in Clark (about 20 miles north of here).  My neighbor on Burgess Creek Road swears she had a wolf in her driveway last fall. 

Who knows, with a bit of luck and my fingers crossed, I sincerely hope that someday I get to have a little wolf with my early morning coffee.