Spring Brings Hungry Bears Back To The Rockies

Spring in the Rockies doesn’t arrive with a polite knock. It crashes in slowly—snow melting into mud, the first stubborn shoots of green pushing through frozen ground, and somewhere deep in the hills, a bear opening its eyes after months of darkness.

Across the Northern Hemisphere, bears start waking up from hibernation between late February and April. It’s less of a dramatic return and more like the world’s groggiest morning. After spending the winter sealed inside dens, their bodies slowed to a biological crawl, they step back outside lighter—sometimes 30 percent lighter—and very, very hungry.

If you’ve ever woken up from a long nap feeling disoriented and ready to raid the fridge, imagine that feeling scaled up to about 500 pounds.

According to the National Park Service, the first grizzly spotted each spring tends to show up right on schedule. The season’s debut sighting happened on March 14 in 2025, March 3 in 2024, and March 7 in both 2023 and 2022. It’s the moment when winter’s long quiet breaks and something big and shaggy starts moving again.

And in 2026, scientists saw the first bear of the year on Monday, March 9. The grizzly spotted this year was seen deep in the park’s backcountry, feeding on the remains of a bull bison. A photo from the sighting shows the bear standing over the carcass near Yellowstone Lake while scavenging the winter-killed animal.

Wyoming is home to an estimated 150 to 200 grizzly bears, while the broader Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem supports more than 1,000. This ecosystem stretches beyond park borders, spanning parts of Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming surrounding Yellowstone National Park.

Here in the Cowboy State, the return of the Grizzly Bear is part of one of the most remarkable wildlife recovery stories in North America. In 1975, scientists estimated just 136 grizzlies remained in the region centered around Yellowstone National Park. Today, after decades of conservation under the Endangered Species Act, the population has rebounded dramatically.

And spring is when everyone—bears and humans alike—returns to the same trails, valleys, and river bottoms.

Snow melts. Green shoots push up through the soil. Elk carcasses thaw in quiet meadows. And somewhere in the timber, a newly awakened bear wanders out into the light, nose to the wind, looking for the first real meal of the year.

Be warned: bears emerge from hibernation extremely hungry and often feed on winter-killed animals, which they may aggressively defend. If a person accidentally approaches a carcass or surprises a bear at close range, the situation can quickly become dangerous. Wildlife officials advise hikers to stay alert, make noise, and carry bear spray when traveling in bear country.