Up a tree

Yesterday, March 21,2008, we decided to drive the Roaring Fork Motor Trail to determing the status of the wild flower bloom. We got a bonus. I'll post the status of the wild flowers hopefully later today or tomorrow. (Click on the image for a larger view)
I had driven past this, but had pulled over to take to take some pictures of the wild flowers. Another motorist called to me, "did you see the bear?". Of course I had not, I was looking for wildflowers on the ground, not bears in a tree. I took the closeup lens off the camera an went to have a look. The bear was about 1/2 way up a large tree about 200 or 300 yards away. Of all the luck, my long lens was still in the car.
Sherlene had gone on down the road to look for wildflowers and was expecting me to pick her up. When I didn't show up, she began to wonder where I was. Eventually, she saw the crowd at the top of the hill and joined us. Her picture is above. The traffic must have been backed up the whole way to Gatlinburg as others stopped in the middle of the road to see what was going on.

Below is a tight crop of the top photograph.

For my photographer friends:
I eventually did go back to the car and get the 300mm and tripod, but the photos from it are no better. The 18-200mm with image stabilization does about as good of a job as the 300mm with tripod.
Sherlene's Canon SX10IS is a fantastic all purpose camera, I'm glad I got it for her at Christmas time.
The top two shots are full frame. They are sharpened and contrast adjusted, just the usual stuff. I wish I had thought to set the camera to RAW mode.