The image shows the cover of Great Colorado Bear Stories by Laura Pritchett. The cover image is of a bear frolicking in a beige grassy meadow with yellow-leaf trees behind.

Great Colorado Bear Stories

Great Colorado Bear Stories is an incredible look at Colorado’s bears, including the grizzlies that once roamed across the state, and the black bears that still do.

Carefully researched and skillfully written, these stories involve death and near-death, playfulness and humor. Some stories are historical – Roosevelt’s hunting, Pike’s exploring, and the death of Colorado’s last grizzly. Other tales are contemporary – the death of a logger, two campers who nearly lost their lives, the scientists who crawl into bear dens. These stories involve hikers, ranchers, wildlife biologists, historians, Native Americans, and regular folks whose lives have intersected with the great bruins of our state.

Whether you are intrigued by bears or simply like amazing true stories, Great Colorado Bear Stories is a remarkable book about understanding and living with Colorado’s bears.

What others are saying …

“A valuable and wide-ranging work of scholarship, love, and respect, Pritchett’s book is a great source for the history of bears in Colorado—black and grizzly.” — Rick Bass, author, Why I Came West and The Lost Grizzlies: A Search for Survivors in the Wilderness of Colorado

“In Great Colorado Bear Stories, prize-winning author Laura Pritchett has clearly done her homework, and then some. Whether your interest is the history of human interactions with grizzly and black bears in Colorado, bear attacks, the avoidance of bear attacks, basic bear biology, techniques for living peacefully with bears as neighbors, or you merely want to read some great Colorado bear yarns, this book is a reliable and highly readable resource.” David Petersen, author, Ghost Grizzlies: Does the Great Bear Still Haunt Colorado?