June 19 - Hike and about a Bear

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Ok, so back to our vacation. I told you I had a lot of photos...and I still have about oh, 10 posts or so with what I consider the best or the most interesting pics.


This was at Glacier National Park. We started out that morning and drove up one side as far as we could. Remember, I told you the Going-to-the-Sun Road was closed part way up so we could only drive the 12 miles out of like 50. So, we came to the end and they had this walking trail that was actually made for a wheelchair. It was ramped the entire way with a wood walkway. Really cool. It was about a total of a mile. My mom doesn't usually go on the walks with us, but she went this time. I was glad. She doesn't get to hike with us much. She broke her ankle in three places a few years ago and since then she just isn't able to walk very far, especially on any ground that isn't flat. She is afraid she might fall again. Don't blame her.

Anyway, we were on this trail fairly early in the morning and there weren't any other people directly near us. We came to a bridge over a beautiful waterfall. We were all about taking pictures there so we hung out a bit. My mom was crossing the bridge and my sister was withher. My son and I had just posed for my dad to take a picture of us (he was at the start of the bridge) when we heard this crackling of the leaves. We looked to the left and from underneath where we had been standing, crawled a BEAR!!! We hadn't seen one on our trip so far and we were hoping we would see one (though not so close). Unfortunately, Brandon's reaction was to RUN and scream as fast as he couold to the other end of the bridge. It freaked us all out. I got him to quietly come back and we watched the bear as it plodded along right in front of us.

Dad was holding his camera up taking pictures and I was right behind him, trying to also get pictures. My hands were shaking and I was simultaneously freaking out and excited.

Then, the bear stops walking along the path AWAY from us and actually looks at my dad (or at us) and turns to face us (double gulp) and starts walking toward us. (I'm really wishin I wore my Depends about now...) and below is the picture I got of it coming our way. This bear comes towards us and it not very far from us and just stops and looks at my dad. (dad is kind of small so maybe he was thinking "not worth lunch" or something. I don't know, but I was freaking...trying to tell my dad (in a low voice) come ON dad, lets go!!!


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DAd just stood there taking its picture. He got a pretty good one, though it is fuzzy, like all mine. But, can you believe how close this bear was? The below picture is the one my dad got. Tell me this isn't dangerous!! We weren't in a zoo and there were no fences. This bear was not that far from us.


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And then, just as quickly as it came to look at us, it turned the other way and walked off - up the path to the left of the waterfall and on its way.

So, that was a huge amount of excitement for us. We laughed about it a bit later because my mom is deathly afraid of heights and bridges and she was really not wanting to go across the bridge. It was funny, she has NO PROBLEM getting across that bridge when the bear showed its face. I mean, I've never seen my mother move that fast. We laughed about that after the fact!

So after that, we continued along the path. We then came to a place that went uphill to another couple of trailheads. Brandon and my dad went up to check it out. Mom and Amy decided to head back to the car. So, I joined my dad. I saw that the sign said the shortest trail was a 2 mile hike!!! I don't think they realized that. So, we set off on this trail. We ended up hiking the whole thing - so we hiked like 5 miles - 2 miles there, 2 miles back and the other part of the trail was a mile. Man, was I tired after that!!! So, these next shots are some of the scenery we saw along the way.


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I thought these tree roots looked cool.

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I loved how the sunlight played in these trees - it almost looked surreal. Doesn't this look like what the forest might have looked like in Little Red Riding Hood or some other fairy tale?

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We also would come out along the river every so often...the trail would wind around -coming by the river frequently.

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My pictures don't do the beauty of it justice.

The hike was supposed to lead us to a lake so we were anxious to see what the view looked like after our long hike. Here it was. It was indeed beautiful!

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I wish I had had weeks to spend in Glacier. There are hundreds of trails similar to this one - each reaching another beautiful venue or scenic vista. I never tire of seeing God's creation.

Well, that is it for this day's pictures. I hope you've enjoyed our day.

I should mention that Brandon will be coming home tomorrow!!! He'll be here for the weekend and then Monday he is off to church camp until Friday. We have plans to go see The Dark Knight this weekend, so that should be good. I also plan to go see Mama Mia tomorrow afternoon before Brandon gets here. Popcorn here I come!!

Everyone have a great weekend.