(Sorry for the repost – I think this will fix my corrupted post problem…??)
Stop the presses! Attention all Radio Stations, clear the airwaves! This is it! This is the big report you’ve all been waiting for!
Monday the 20th turned out to be the best day of all in Glacier National Park. After an almost total wildlife fail in Canada and what was beginning to look like another wildlife fail in GNP we decided to head out early (meaning 7am. YES, that’s early!) Monday morning. We wanted to finish the hike to Hidden Lake which we couldn’t complete because it nearly killed us a few days before.
The dog was still at the kennel. We had taken her into the Vet because of a nasty sounding cough, but the vet said there was nothing wrong with her. This vet also boarded dogs so we just left her there for a few days and what a nice few days that was… without the dog.
So, without the dog, we hopped in the Jeep and headed up the Going-to-the-Sun Road from the West Glacier KOA, entered the park, drove passed the McDonald Lake Lodge (where we had eaten a couple of times, nice lodge) and passed the Avalanche trailhead. Not far beyond the Avalanche trailhead we saw a couple of cars and a few people on the side of the road. This usually means something exciting is going on. So we stopped, looked down the river bank where the others were looking and… FINALLY! A BEAR! A nice little black bear eating twigs by the rivers edge.
We stayed, watched and followed the bear with about 3 or 4 other people. It was about 7:30 am and very few people out on the roads. Nice and quiet.
The bear slowly headed up the river bank toward a pullout/scenic view point. This is a spot we had stopped before to get some good river pictures. It has a nice little path and steps down to the rocks and water so tour bus people can get a quick look at nature and jump back on their bus without breaking a sweat.
As we approached the scenic path the bear began climbing up the embankment towards the parking area. Just then I noticed a couple who had been down by the river now coming towards us on the path AND, unbeknownst to them, they were on a direct collision course with THE BEAR!!!!
I had a perfect vantage point to see both the bear’s trajectory and the couples final resting place! This wasn’t going to be pretty. They were walking along, arm-in-arm with not a care in the world like they were in love or something and the BEAR was making his way up the bank looking for something to EAT… WOW! Why wasn’t I filming this?!
Of course, I had to do something! I sprang into action and yelled at the people, “Hey, you may want to cut across the guard rail and get up on the parking area promptly so as not to disturb the BEAR THAT’S GOING TO EAT YOU!!!”
(Can you see the bear behind the trees in this animation? He’s almost to the path. The couple has just gotten off the path as the bear cuts across it)
That did it. They jumped up a couple of rocks and over the little guard rail to the parking area just moments before the bear crossed almost exactly where they were headed! It was a close call! They thanked me profusely. Later the park rangers tried to award me with a medal of valor for heroism, but I refused… I’m no hero. Anyone else would have done the same thing (except, apparently, the other people around me who did nothing).
And that’s, “How To Save a Life” (Could be a good song title).
(There’s Tina getting dangerously close to the BEAR to get a picture! “Watch out honey! I’ll save you!)
But that’s not the end.
After the bear crossed the road ( I had to do a little traffic control slowing down cars coming around the bend where the bear was in the road), we headed on up to Logan Pass, again. Determined to make the 6 mile round trip (10 million foot elevation change!) hike to Hidden Lake.
When we started out it was beginning to look gloomy and stormy just like the other day… Tina was worried… But I brought a jacket and extra sunflower seeds this time!
There was even snow on the ground melting into a nice little stream.
As we were passing the point where we were forced to turn around a few days earlier we noticed a group of people just ahead of us at the trails edge all with their cameras pointing the same direction. You know what that means, something is going on. Once we got up to the people we figured out that they were looking at a BEAR ( 2 in 1 Day! BAM!) down the hill in the valley. I asked one of the people who had what looked like a $10,000 mega camera lens if they could tell whether it was a black or grizzly bear. Definitely a GRIZZLY!!! YES!! I had to get a selfie with the GRIZZLY.
Here’s my GRIZZLY selfie… it’s the best my cellphone camera could do:
He may be a little hard to see in this picture so I added a red arrow to point him out. He’s right behind me. Can you see the fuzzy brown area near the point of the red arrow? Yep! That’s him. He was bigger in real life.
Since my camera was not as good as those with the mega lenses I decided I would forsake all rules and personal safety and go “off trail” down the valley to get a good, close up picture of the Grizzly just for those of you who may not believe me!
I stared him down and he backed off!
Here’s another pic, actually an animation. If you watch carefully you can see a little brown dot move. That really is the Grizzly.
Look roughly in the center of the picture, down in the valley on this side of the stream.
Well, with the GRIZZLY behind us and knowing we’d have to come back along this same trail when we returned AND probably face certain GRIZZLY dangers, we decided to press on anyway to Hidden Lake overlook and then on the Hidden Lake itself.
It’s a little unnerving knowing that a GRIZZLY BEAR is behind you and heading more or less the same direction as you are going…
The overlook above the lake was fantastic, of course. Yeah we made it. This was the easy 1.5 mile part of the hike with only about 800 feet of elevation change. Now on to the lake!
The lake was like a mirror…
Once we made it down to the lake the water was beautiful and clear, but getting down there….
“Wait a minute, tell me again how we are getting down there? Gondola? What?”
The switchback trail down to the lake was brutal!
“I don’t wanna go down any further, Tina! Stop! Wait for me!!”
I wasn’t sure we could make it back up this dude!
After a picnic lunch and an argument over pickle relish in an egg salad sandwich (just a minor blip in the marital bliss meter) we took these pictures along the waters edge.
There were people fly fishing, wading, and someone packed in an inflatable paddle board and was cruising around on the lake. Too cool. But now for the hike back up the hill. If the first half was about an 800 foot elevation gain, then I would estimate the second half would have been about a 2 million foot elevation gain, give or take (actually it was 1325 foot elevation gain, all within about 1/2 mile of the lake).
It was tough!
But once we made it back to the top of the switchbacks the trail was much more manageable and we had a nice little treat when we were met by mountain goats on the trail ahead of us. In fact you had to just about push them off the trail to get passed them.
It reminded me of my Mom reading me “Three Billy Goats Gruff” when I was younger (definitely before high school).
The hike back to Logan Pass information center was a pleasure, but we kept an eye out for the grizzly bear that was still lurking around somewhere. I asked the park ranger when we made it back what happened to the grizzly. She said she didn’t know, it probably wandered off. What?! The park ranger doesn’t know where the GRIZZLIES are! Isn’t that their job to keep track of grizzlies, put a collar on them, tag their ears, track them with RFID chips?? This is a truly wild place.
Well that’s my story and its almost all true. We had a great time in Glacier National Park. If you get a chance to go you better do it!