Grizzly Bear at Swifcurrent Lake in Glacier National Park

by Sherri Wright
(Fort Worth, TX)

The Glacier National Park hiking trail was marked as an active grizzly bear area and while hiking, we saw a LOT of grizzly bear scat. The scat was along the trail and located about every 50 yards or so and it was new.

As we continued on the hike, we were being very cautious and aware. Then we spotted a grizzly bear down below us in a meadow area. We stopped and snapped pictures feeling pretty safe with about 300 yards and a steep hill between us.

We continued on and ran into a ranger a bit later and he explained that there were actually two bears in the area - we had seen the larger of the two. He told us to be cautious on the way down and yell out, "Hey Bear!" each time we turned a corner or had a blind spot.

We headed down and followed his instructions. Then, once we had relaxed a bit and were on a very slight "S" type curve - our lead hiker (there were 4 of us) raised his hand and said stop...bear. Two of us backed up and readied the bear spray. The two in front stood and calmly started making noise.

The grizzly bear looked up, raised his/her nose and sniffed a bit. Then the bear ambled off the trail and disappeared into the foliage. We waited a while, still making noise and then scooted close together and moved on.

We kept watching in front and in back and actually saw the bear again swimming in the lake away from us.

It was the scariest and at the same time most fun experience I have ever had!!! The bear was amazing!!! Beautiful really.

Keeping our cool was tough and the desire to run away was very strong! But the grizzly bear was not doing anything that made us feel threatened. I am glad we had done a bit of research before going into the park. It would be a terrible shame to have a bear injured or put down because we were unprepared and unable to react in a manner that kept us all safe... grizzly bear included!