Brown bears and black bears

I love this picture of my Great-grandma at Yellowstone feeding a black bear. That's my Nana standing on the log in the background. So cute!

My brother Philip saw some bears too, when he was in Alaska:

Someday maybe we'll get to see some wild bears ourselves!

We learned that fur color is actually not a very good way to tell bears apart, since "Black Bears" can be brown or white or blond or greyish, and "Brown Bears" can be all those colors too! Grizzly Bears are just a type of Brown Bear. There are lots of resources on how to tell the species apart. I suppose it mostly only matters if you're hunting them, but it's interesting to know nonetheless:

Grizzly Bears vs. Black Bears
More bear identification
Bear ID test
Black bear fur

We have only black bears here in Utah, though there used to be grizzlies too.
More resources about brown and black bears:
Bear safety
Giving birth during hibernation
Brown bear at San Diego Zoo