Glacier National Park is known for a couple of things – 1. glaciers and 2. wildlife. As is the case globally, the glaciers are dwindling, but a shadow of their former selves. The wildlife however, is thriving. Grizzly bears (oh yes!), black bears (which if you didn’t know can be black, brown or blonde), moose, elk, mountain goats, wolverines (who knew), even wolves. Cool, let’s get out there and look for some bears!
We had done some research in advance, and our hike of choice was to Iceberg Lake in the Many Glacier area of the park. A good chance of seeing bears and icebergs in a lake seemed to tick both boxes. And then we found it was closed. What? Closed? Why? Because of bear activity. What? But we’ve come to see bears! Yes, as if to add insult to injury, the trail was not only closed, it was closed because of bears.
We were pointed in the direction of an alternative walk – the Swiftcurrent Valley, where there was supposedly a good chance of seeing wildlife. Unfortunately, so was everyone else so it wasn’t the quietest of hikes. Still, the scenery was impressive, especially around Bullhead Lake.
We kept our eyes peeled for bears but nada, nothing, zilch. Of course, they’re all playing around on the Iceberg Lake trail! Other hikers jingle jangled as they walked with their bear bells tinkling, sounding like a herd of reindeer. Yet others walked with cans of bear spray in their hands, ready to attack at any moment (or more likely spray themselves in the face). They needn’t have worried – any trail I’m walking on is virtually guaranteed to have no bears.
Back in the car park, there was a bit of a kerfuffle as a small crowd gathered around a spotting scope. We went to see what all the fuss was about – and high up on the mountainside (mere specks, but moving specks and visible through binoculars or the scope) was a grizzly mother and her two cubs. Lesson learned – if you want to spot bears, your best chance is in the car park.
Brown speck on the left is mama Grizzly. Blonde speck on the right is one of the cubs.