John “Grizzly” Adams and his companion grizzly bear, Benjamin Franklin would both bare the scars of that attack for the rest of their lives. Adams then returned to his camp, where it took him several weeks to recover. He was soon able to retrieve his rifle and killed the mother grizzly bear. Then, Benjamin Franklin, Adam's “companion” grizzly, distracted the mother bear with a bite to her haunch allowing Adams to escape and quickly climbed a tree. The mother grizzly knocked his rifle from his hands, tore his scalp loose and dented his skull in with one powerful swipe, and bit into his neck. In the spring of 1855, while on a hunting trip in the Sierra Nevada, the bear cub, Benjamin Franklin saved John’s life when a mother grizzly bear attacked Adams. John named the grizzly Samson he also retrieved a pair of two-week-old male grizzly cubs from a den of their mother near Yosemite Valley naming one of them Benjamin Franklin.

In 1854 John Adams trapped a 1,500-pound grizzly bear in the Sierra Nevada, one of the largest grizzlies ever captured alive. Grizzly Adams made friends with nearby Native American tribes and found companions among some of nature’s untamed beasts, that especially featured his prized grizzly bears. This small wilderness meadow became known to the pioneers as “Lair of the Golden Bear” meaning, a place where a wild animal, especially a fierce or dangerous animal lives. John Grizzly Adams, whose true name was John Capen Adams (1812-1860) challenged both conventional norms and untamed nature, first by turning his back on a greed-driven society born from the California Gold Rush, and then by blazing a trail into the wildest parts of the Sierra Nevada Mountain-Range where he built a log cabin in a small wilderness meadow alongside the Stanislaus River near present-day Pinecrest California. Grizzly Adams became well-known during the gold rush for his adventurous spirit and his grizzly bear companions that traveled with him on his hunting and trapping explorations. This vast landscape, located in the middle of nowhere between the scenic byway known as Ebbetts Pass and Yosemite National Park was once the stomping grounds of the legendary mountain man John “Grizzly Adams,” who holds the legacy of California’s most famous mountain man from the 1800s. You will explore an amazing combination of scenic mountain roads, remote dirt roads, and historic sites throughout the Stanislaus National Forest. Grizzly Adventure is the perfect ride for ADVENTURE motorcycles. You will also have the opportunity to visit the historic site where Grizzly Adams built his winter cabin and stable to house and train wild Grizzly Bears. Your off-road adventure explores the footsteps of the legendary John “Grizzly” Adams to remote locations such as Grizzly Meadow and Griswold Creek located in a dense conifer forest known as “Hells Half Acre” located between the North Fork and South Fork of the Stanislaus Rivers on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada. This rugged and remote landscape was once the hunting, trapping, and stomping grounds of the famous California mountain man and trainer of grizzly bears (known as “Grizzly” Adams).

Grizzly Adventure ride EXPLORES a vast landscape of rugged river canyons on a remote OFF-ROAD route through a secluded forest on this amazing ADVENTURE ride.

Grizzly adventure park