Yellowstone National Park’s first reported bear attack of 2026 occurred in an area that was until recently off-limits to spring hiking to reduce the risk of human-grizzly bear conflicts.

Two hikers in Yellowstone National Park were found last week by a third hiker who followed grizzly bear tracks to the scene of a bear attack. They were

Hiker Craig Lerman was the first to find one of two victims of a grizzly bear attack near Old Faithful in Yellowstone on Monday after he stumbled on

ABC News reported that another hiker, Craig Lerman of Maryland, came upon the aftermath after noticing at least two sets of claw marks, then spotting a bloody hat and a torn-off watch near the trail. He soon heard one of the injured hikers calling for help.

Once the bear reached the area where the wolves were, the wolves must’ve smelled him ... then all chaos broke out.”

Wolf and grizzly bear sightings are fairly common in Yellowstone. But scenes such as these, illustrating the life-or-death struggle for sustenance among apex predators, are rarely documented in such detail.