Days 12 and 13: Many Glacier and Going to the Sun Road, Glacier NP, MT

Friday I drove from St Mary up to Many Glacier, an area of the park known for its wildlife populations. The ranger had recommended some day hikes in this area, despite there being grizzlies spotted in the area all the time. I parked in the Swiftcurrent Trailhead parking lot and started getting my stuff together. A man who was just getting out of his car mentioned that there were 2 grizzlies spotted off of the trail. I said "Oh no!", but he insisted that it was a good thing. I said maybe I would hike behind him, in that case, since I was a scaredy cat. He said that was fine, and we took off down the trial. We separated at some point so that I could check out a small lake that is popular among the moose in the park.

I met back up with him about a mile down the trail (me yelling out in Spanish so as not to seem like such a freak), and we sat for a while down the hill from a mama bear and her adolescent son. The man I met, Bill, had been coming to Glacier for 18 years, 2 months of every year, and was an amateur wildlife photographer. He knew most of the people that were hiking through, and introduced me to some people that I wound up hiking on with down the trail. It was a couple from Arkansas and a Cheyenne author, who was doing research for a book on bears. They were hiking on to Bullhead Lake, and Bill suggested that I go along to see more of the scenery.

We saw a bull moose crossing lower Bullhead. We kept going on the trail, and about 45 minutes after we had seen the moose we met up with a man coming back the other way that they knew. He was a bit worked up, and said he had run into a grizzly about 150 yards up the trail. We hiked on, apparently looking for a confrontation... We got one. About 5 minutes later we turned a corner and came upon an adult male grizzly who was eating about a foot off of the trail. When he saw us he got up on his hind legs and growled (and I almost had a heart attack, while we all backed up quickly but calmly), and then grumbled across the path and down towards the lake. It was the most intensely exciting and scary moment I think I have ever experienced. The people I was with tried to track him down, but we didn't meet him again. We did see a bunch more moose, but they weren't interested in them.

This picture is bad, but this is the bear that we encountered. I didn't have my mind in the right place at the moment to capture him on his hind legs.... :(

Saturday I drove from the east side to the west side, and drove the Going to the Sun Road, but it was rainy and cloudy, so it was hard to see the scenery that the place is famous for. The clouds did make for some cool pictures though.

Check http://gallery.me.com/caseys_travels/100092 for more photos.