Western, old enough to have archaic language, about a boy who lost his father on the frontier, then survived alone, gaining animal companions like a bear(?), then falls in love when he's finally around other people again

[E]

A boy and his father are traveling west in the mid/late 1800s to become settlers, possibly with a larger group. Somewhere--I think around the Rockies?--they encounter disaster, and the boy is the only survivor. He's learned just barely enough to survive, but almost dies because he can't make fire, until his rifle falls from his hands, and sparks as it hits a rock. After that, he's able to live off the land alone. He encounters/rescues and tames at least one large predator--a bear, or mountain lion, or possibly both?--and develops a small group of animal companions, possibly including a horse. He grows up, and eventually, he runs into settlers--ranchers, I think. He falls in love with the daughter of one, and helps the rancher fight off some bad guys.

I read this in the 80s, but my impression is that it was written in the early to mid 20th century; I remember that verbal flirting was described as 'making love,' so it was written sometime before this phrase changed meaning. I read a lot of Louis L'amour as a kid in the 80s, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't by him. It may have been Zane Grey (that seems to be about the right time period for the author) but I read all the book descriptions I could find, and couldn't track it down that way.

The copy I read was a paperback, and my vague, 35-year old memory of the cover is that it showed a bunch of tall trees, and a man with some tame wild animals, but that might have been a cover just for that particular paperback edition.