This dude was about 30 feet from Carrie and I in Rocky Mountain National Park this past weekend. I gave him the steely gaze of death and he slowly backed away. Or maybe it was the other way around.

Update: One of my dad’s colleagues has a brother who happens to be Christopher W. Ryan, Ph.D.., supervisor of game management services at the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources, and he offered his analysis of the bear:

I think it is one heck (375-425lb) of a big male black (brown phase)
bear. It would have to be over 5 years old – If he was in WV I would
say at least a 6-7 year old if not older. I would say that with only one
picture and at that angle that I’m 95% sure of that guess.