Glacier Natl Park

Glacier Natl Park Day 2
We took the boat trip and the naturalist walk to St. Mary’s Waterfall ( a 3.5 mile hike ) and I was really proud of Bev she did fine on the hike. On the boat trip around St. Mary’s Lake we saw a black bear and a grizzly bear. I got a picture of the black bear but the grizzly was too far away. On the way back on the boat we saw another black bear. So that made three bears today. Apparently the park has about 500 grizzly bears and even more black bears.
The park ranger gave us some interesting insights into the mountains and the glaciers in the park. Apparently there are about 20 fewer glaciers than about 50 years ago and the ones that are here are receding. The trees are mostly lodge pine and fir with alder and aspen.
We tasted some huckleberries and some Saskatoon berries although they call them by a different name here.
The hike to the falls was great and we spent some time at the falls, before the hike back. On the trail on the way back we did not spend any time on nature observation but we did spot a bear rub tree (where the bear scratches himself). Then on the boat trip back there were two bald eagles in a tree.
Tonight we will have an early dinner and then it is onto the road up to many glaciers area and then a hike down to the lake to an area they said that there were lots of bears.
We took a ride but the many glaciers area is on the other side of the park and we did not want to drive that far so we went to Logan Pass and took the trail to Hidden Lakes. This was a strenuous 3 mile hike at a high altitude as we had to hike thru snow, small streams and at steep incline sometimes. The views though were fantastic and we saw a herd of big horn sheep up really close and then on the trail we had to literally sidestep three mountain sheep. They did not seem the least perturbed by us and were quite content to just lie down there on the trail as we passed by literally within 1-2 feet of them. It was late in the evening on driving home and we spotted two deer in a large field of wild flowers but no bears.
We will be moving on tomorrow and possibly go to the west end of Glacier Natl Park or down further south. Depends on when we get up and how the road conditions are. We still have 7 days to meet Bev’s friend Mary in Hamilton Montana.
No internet again for a few days it looks like.
So much for now.
Lorne
1 Road to the Sun
2 Deer in our campsite
3 Old Ranger station
4 Blossoms
5 Marmot on the road