West Coast -- Glacier, Going to the Sun Road... Bears!!

Today (Wednesday) we drove all the way across the Going to the Sun Road and around to Many Glacier, the area on the Eastern side of the park. Wow!!! It was completely amazing! At one of our early stops Jonathan ran up a very short trail and nearly stumbled over a big-horn sheep. The two of them were equally startled to see each other and the sheep turned and bolted. We hiked a short trail to St. Mary Falls. Aside from an incident in which Evelyn ran out on the bridge by herself over the raging torrent 20 feet below and started to crawl up onto the wooden rail, giving us all a major heart-attack, we all had a lovely time. The Falls are stunning and we got some great pictures there. We explored St. Mary Lodge and did some damage in the gift shop. After that we drove up to Many Glacier and had a lovely picnic. There was a ranger in the parking lot that had a telescope focused on some mountain goats on the slope above us. It was amazing to look through and see them because it was impossible to see them when we just looked up there. Over at the trailhead for our afternoon hike there were some other folks who had spotted a grizzly way up on the slope and some of us were able to see it through their telescope. We had a great hike up to Red Rock Falls--Evelyn was our resident mountain goat and was scampering about and pretending to eat the grass along the edge of the trail. She probably hiked three times as far as any of us, for all the loop-de-loops she was doing around the trail! What energy! When we got to the lake there were some people who had spotted a grizzly way up on the opposite slope. We weren't able to see it through any telescope and it literally looked like an ant up there, it was so far away. It was still incredible to see it, lumbering across this incredibly steep slope. We hiked around the lake to the Falls and hung out there for awhile. Evelyn loved to just find a quiet spot, sit down, and get into her own zen moment enjoying the scenery. Sierra was anxious to get back to the other side of the lake because she really wanted to get into the water and there wasn't really a safe place to do that near the falls. Nana and Bob took the girls around to the still part of the lake for a swim while Jonathan and I hoofed it up to the next lake and back. As we came back by the Falls there was a huge group of about 20 people there playing, shouting, and having a really good time. Shortly after we went by we could hear them shouting "Bear!", etc., but we thought they were just teasing each other, because it seemed along the lines of what they had been doing anyway--and we couldn't imagine a bear actually being interested in coming into all that people noise anyway. Well, it turns out that a grizzly indeed did just wander on over to where they all were, and was about 5 feet away from one guy (we talked to him a bit later). From all we could figure out from his story, this bear had been hot on our heels down the trail from the upper lake. Spooky! We never saw or heard it at all but it couldn't have been more than 25 or 50 yards behind us, given the timing of when he showed up at the Falls. Eeek! Anyway, he apparently shuffled away from the group when they started screaming. Meanwhile, we had circled around and were on the opposite side of the small lake by that point, and we got an absolutely fantastic show of this huge bear lumbering along the side of the lake. What a treat! Some of the people who had been by the Falls were making their way around on the trail, so we got to hear their story as they came by. What fun! After the hike we drove by and checked out the Many Glacier Lodge and came unanimously to the opinion that this is THE place to stay in the whole park. Once we had that sorted out we drove down and ate at Two Sisters Cafe, which is famous for its Huckleberry Pie. The pie lived up to its reputation, but the rest of the meal we probably could have done without. Next time we'll just stop there for dessert! The highlight of our meal there, though (not counting pie) was that we spotted our fourth grizzly of the day, just hanging out on the hill behind the restaurant. We feel so lucky! After stuffing ourselves with Huck Pie, we drove back over the Going to the Sun road at dusk. We missed an opportunity to get an up-close look at some bighorn sheep right at Logan Pass because we had already driven by them before we realized it. I looked over my shoulder and caught a glimpse of them, but there was no place to turn around by then. I still feel bummed that the girls didn't have a chance to see them. I don't think they did too badly though, on their wildlife-viewing experience of the day!!