The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams

Eliza Bowker (Kristen Curry), a young girl traveling west with her parents (Hank Kendrick and Lucky Hayes) in a covered wagon, gets lost in the vast mountain wilderness. While her parents search vainly, she wanders aimlessly through the forest, alone and frightened. A mountain lion stalks Eliza and then gives chase, but she is rescued by the grizzly bear, Ben, who frightens the vicious cat away. Eliza realizes that Ben won't hurt her and follows the bear back to Adams (Dan Haggerty). Taking the small girl to his cabin, Adams feeds her and listens to her story of what happened. He promises to help find her parents and they begin by searching the nearby mountains. Eliza gradually causes Adams to change his life style, convincing him to clean up his cabin and to clean himself up too. When Mad Jack (Denver Pyle) arrives, he is surprised to see the little girl there, and flabbergasted by the neatness of Adams' cabin. With the help of Mad Jack, they finally locate Eliza's folks and there is

Adams recalls how he met Nakoma, a Native Indian. We're taken back in past to find out how Adams found Ben, how Indian fought with a lion and much more.

Adams saves Will Boker, an entertainer and a magician, from drowning in a river, and takes him back to his cabin. Boker claims that he lost a bag full of his possessions when he was drowning, so Adams returns to the river and finds it, full of money. Boker claims that money fell in his hands by an accident, but what is the real truth?

When a man named Cartman and his son make a camp at the valley in the mountains, Adams wants to become a great neighbor, but Cartman doesn't want any help from Adams. Things get complicated when the Cartmans' build a lean-to downwind of the campfire and endanger their lives.

Mad Jack accidentally becomes trapped on a raft in rapids and Adams sets up to find the man, but when he finds his personal belongings, Adams is convinced that Mad Jack is gone, and he recalls the first time he met Jack.

Mad Jack accidentally runs into Pinkerton, a man who wants to bring Adams back to the town for the trial. He rushes off to warn Adams, while that mountain is in danger when a volcano becomes active. While Jack tries to find Adams, Adams has to rescue the animals with Ben and Nakoma's help before the volcano erups.

While trying to rescue a raccoon, Adams is accidentally buried by a rock slide. Nakoma and Mad Jack believe that he is died, and they leave him under the rocks. Ben sadly wonders off, Nakoma and Mad Jack return to find Adams alive. In the meantime, Ben is captured by an owner of a animal circus, Mitch Morgan.

Mad Jack meets a young tenderfoot named Teddy in the wilderness, and believes that he is just a clumsy novice, which turns out to be true, when Teddy, or let's say Theodore Roosevelt, attacks Nakoma & Ben and attempts to ride Number Seven.

While escorting Sumi, a young Indian maiden back to the reservation, Mad Jack is stunned to learn that his burro, Number Seven, found a stone of gold. Meanwhile, Nakoma meets Sumi and thinks that she got closer to Mad Jack, so he challenges him to a match.

Adams, Jack and Nakoma set off into the woods to find a monster, a strange creature that Mad Jack saw in the wilderness, a beast that makes Ben act uncomfortable. Soon they learn that the best is actually a camel and has an owner...

Adams' cabin is in danger when a group of beavers, after their valley was destroyed by a forest fire, move into Adams' valley. Mad Jack suggests that Adams' should get rid of them, but he has another plan.

A tough old settler named and his daughter travel west into the rugged mountain territory, and after a small accident, they end up in Adams' cabin.

Ben and Adams prepare to welcome Mad Jack and Nakuma for the annual feast and celebration, but their preparation is interrupted when an Indian woman arrives, looking for help. Her daughter is missing.