Family encounters grizzly bear

Imagine being within feet of a grizzly bear. That was a reality for one family when they were camping at Mill Creek in Island Park. The Harrison family was there for their annual family reunion when they heard people yelling “bear.”

Then Kurt Harrison heard a noise at his tent. “We heard a twig snap and then all of a sudden something hitting the tent. We didn’t know what it was, at first I thought it was my best friend getting up to go out. So I grabbed my phone to use it as a light and then I realized it wasn’t him,” says Harrison. It was a sub-adult male grizzly bear. The bear had recently been relocated but made it’s way back and found himself at Kurt’s tent. “All these thoughts are running through my head and I thought I was prepared but I was not prepared. So then he keeps walking past my tent and he stops right behind me. And I have my back to the wall of the tent, and he’s right behind me, he’s smelling. And so I had my phone out already so I just hurry and dial my dad’s phone number because I’m panicking and my heart’s racing, I’m sweating, I’m almost in tears because I don’t know what to do.” “Went right out behind him and started screaming and clapping and making a lot of noise. We didn’t have a good enough flashlight to really see. Just screaming because we knew we had to frighten that bear out of here. There was like a two-foot hole that he had dug. As he’s digging he’s flipping up the dirt, there was dirt all over the edge of the tent,” says Marqueta Harrison, Kurt’s mom. The bear left but not for long, he made his way through trash and other items in the area. Fish and Game had to come and sedate the bear and eventually, put him down. The Harrison family says they’re sad the bear had to be put down but the experience came with some lessons. “The biggest thing I thought is that people need to be more bear aware, I said in my story. Just because you think you know what’s going to happen and what to do in the situation but unless you’ve experienced it in real life like I froze, I didn’t know what to do. I called for help, I couldn’t scream, I couldn’t move. My best friend was huddled up in his sleeping bag crying because he didn’t know what to do,” says Kurt. So when you’re out in the wild: Be bear aware. The family says they were told the bear was just too comfortable around people. Even if the bear was relocated further away he probably still would have made his way back.