I was reading through some old posts and thought I would update this one. I went back to GTNP in ‘23 and twice this year. I meet Tom Mangelsen on the spring trip in ‘23. He’s an incredibly friendly and helpful guy. (It turns out that was him I saw in the fall in this ‘22 trip.) We talked gear and he handed me his to check out. When I told him I was going to be in the park for 2 weeks he asked for my phone number and actually had his assistant text me a couple of times to tell me of bear sightings which allowed me to get some nice shots of some grizzlies.
I got some really nice photos of Grizzly 399 and her cub Spirit this spring. Unfortunately she was hit by a car and died just a few weeks ago. Sad ending for a very famous bear. PBS had a special on her this year where Mangelsen contributed a lot. It’s currently on YouTube if anybody wants to view it.