Wednesday, July 29th Hiking and Bear-watching in Many Glacier

It was cloudy when we woke up but the forecast looked good so we decided to try hiking to Ptarmigan Tunnel. We finally got on  the trail a little late, maybe 9:45.

As we hiked, it got cloudier and cloudier and at Ptarmigan Falls  (about  2 1/2 miles, halfway to the tunnel through the mountain) we could see that the tunnel was all fogged in. Then it started to rain. Rosie decided that was it, she didn’t want to hike in rain and fog.

So, we hiked back out and went to take showers.
We went back to Many Glacier Hotel  and we got our same spot in the comfy chairs overlooking the lake and hung out there for a while.

Later, we went to the motor inn parking lot searching for a bear to watch, and we were scoping Grinnell Point when a man we had watched bears with yesterday came up and said he had a griz on the other slope. There was a beautiful one up by Henckel Ravine! Soon the bear jam formed. This was a beautiful grizzly, probably a female, and we spent several hours watching her off and on.

Eventually she very slowly headed to the east. I made beef stew for dinner and we took turns watching her from our site (Rosie chose it well!) while I cooked and while we ate. After dinner and clean up we made our way down the valley and saw her from several different pullouts further east. Jim and Karen had set up their huge scope a few times and she kept moving out of view.

Eventually we stopped at the pullout just east of the hotel and watched her come across.

 Then we noticed she was headed DOWN and before I knew it she was looking at us over some rocks maybe 40 yards uphill.

Rosie realized she was trying to find a safe place to cross the road to get down to the river, so we got in the car and I started telling people what was going on and that we all needed to move, and why. Only ONE person listened. The rest stayed put. I was really wondering where the rangers were (AGAIN). Rosie and I drove down the road and waited a bit and then decided to head back to MG. As we came around the corner to the pullout, there was finally a ranger there and people were clearing out and looking downhill. It turns out she must have crossed right in the middle of all those people, which had to have been stressful for her. I wish the ranger had gotten there sooner. They knew she was up on the slopes  for several hours but didn’t have anyone following her progress.  I suppose that is  because often the bears just disappear - the rangers had no way of knowing she’d try and cross the road. We went back to the tent and read books and went to sleep early.

I love that my daughter loves Glacier, wilderness, and wildlife as much as I do.  She has infinite patience for wildlife watching and she loves to help other people get sightings of bears and wolves as much as I do.  And she is a fabulous wildlife spotter herself!