Days 8, 9 & 10 - Waterton Glacier and bears

On Thursday (after spending the night in a welcomed hotel in Calgary) we traveled to Waterton Lakes National Park (via Cardston to see the temple). We took a very nice boat tour on the Upper Waterton Lake. This is an interesting lake because it crosses the international border so we started and ended the tour in Canada but visited the States along the way!

On Friday morning we woke up early and drove up the Red Rock Canyon in Waterton to go bear watching. Mike has a good eye and spotted what looked like a young grizzly right off the road. We were only able to watch him for a minute or so before he went behind the trees. He was probably 30 yards away. As we drove between Waterton and Glacier later that morning, we spotted a black bear off the side (maybe 15 feet). All the park rangers in all the parks have been warning everyone that the buffalo berries have just come on so all the bears are coming down lower to eat the thousands and thousands of berries they'll need before winter. Anyway, after we got to Glacier NP, we drove to visit the Many Glacier area and had a sow and 2 cubs cross the road in front of us and in the Many Glacier parking lot, we watched a sow and 1 cub through the scope for a half hour or so! The count was 4 grizzlies off the road, 1 black bear off the road and 2 grizzlies through the scope - all in the same day!

Saturday was spent in Glacier. It is a gorgeous place! Our favorites were a hike to St.Mary's and Virginia Falls and Logan pass - a very high elevation pass similar to Albion Basin (um...but better) with amazing views and lots of wildflowers. We both would've like to have spent a bit more time here! (I'll add a couple pictures when I get them downloaded.)