In the course of a single day, they might assist with abear jam at Signal Mountain, talk to visitors hiking along String Lake or even get called to help relocate a campsite's paper wasp nest.

Then we get back in the car and on the way we come upon abear jam - lots of cars and people looking at another bear and her two cubs.

At the Canyon Village Ranger Station, as hikers inquire about backcountry campsites, an oversized walkie-talkie begins crackling with a familiar broadcast: "We've got anotherbear jam on the north side of Dunraven Pass," declares an anonymous voice.

In Yellowstone National Park, "bear jam" is code for grizzly bears sauntering at close range along the roadside.

There is wildness too: 'bear jams' disrupting traffic, cougar sightings and soaring eagles, towering ancient trees, log- strewn beaches and distant snowy peaks.

"I get how Yellowstone is more than postcards andbear jams. I know it now on a totally different level."