fishing during a fall snow storm in the eastern sierras. father and i spotted a BIG black animal about a mile away climbing a mountain. it was on the opposite side of the lake. looked to be about the size of a moose, but there aren't any moose on this side of the sierras. all elk would have been in much lower elevations down in long valley (you see them and pass them driving up highway 395). we watched this thing for a good hour and a half as it slowly made its way up over the crest of the mountain. judging it's size was difficult from that far away, but it was obviously big and easy to make out considering the animal itself was dark and walking across a snow patch. couldn't make out whether it was bipedal or not.
concluded that it was either bigfoot himself, or a 700lb bear. in either case, it was something we did not want to encounter.
could it be the last california grizzly?
ETA: Also seen coyotes in urban areas of los angeles. They live in and use the cement water channels (los angeles river and tributaries) to move about the city, eating people's cats and other pets. You'd be amazed at how many you see out on the streets after dark. Some of them can get to be pretty big too, encountered the largest one i've ever seen just last week while walking my dog.