Black bear hunting is not something that we have done very much of, but it is something that will hopefully be part of every year for us in the future. We didn’t grow up where bears lived and even now the closest spot to go bear hunting is about a three hour drive away. Towards the end of May we decided to go to northwest Wyoming to see what we could find. unfortunately we didn’t get a bear on the trip, we didn’t even see one, but we had a good time none the less, and got to see some amazing country.

We knew snow and rain were in the forecast so we used a tarp to cover our tents and give us some more area out of the snow.

While walking around one day we came across several of these scent trees. This was one of the bigger ones that we saw and by the hair on it was definitely made by a grizzly.



Some of the wildlife we did see included mule deer, elk, and a few chipmunks.


After spending a couple days in one spot and not seeing much we decided to head to some lower elevations. Here Justin is doing some glassing between snow storms.

Since we didn’t find much any black bears in northwest Wyoming Justin decided to try the Bighorn mountains for a day while Ethan headed back home. He ended up getting snowed on there as well.

If there was one thing we did learn from this hunt is where not to go for black bear. Maybe next year we will go to one of the more popular spots, but maybe not. One good thing about going where nobody else goes is you won’t see anyone else while hunting, and there is plenty more wilderness in Wyoming that we haven’t seen yet so you can bet we will be somewhere new next spring searching for a lonely black bear.

-Justin and Ethan Starck
starckbros@adventurousbowhunter.com