Hiking nirvana and a grizzly bear too!

So little time, so many hikes. With only three days scheduled in East Glacier, we had to pick just one major hike and opted to do the Iceberg Lake Trail on Tuesday. It seems to be on every top ten list and had a lot less elevation gain than some of our other options (which makes Mommy happy).

For all you trail geeks - here's the details of the hike.

After a very hearty breakfast of huckleberry pancakes and syrup (carb loading!) we made the 40-minute drive to the Many Glaciers area of the park. On the way there, we saw a black bear sauntering along the road. It looked like he was following a guy walking along oblivious to the bear behind him. A park ranger swerved in and intercepted the bear, who took off before I could get a picture.

Bambi is ready for a smack down.

The trailhead begins at the Swiftwater Inn where we had our first personal wildlife encounter. A belligerent deer! We know to beware of bear, bison, elk, and mountain lions, but Bambi - come on! All we wanted to do was walk past her to the trailhead, but this gal was having none of it. She looked right at Rog, stamped both her front hooves and said, “Bring it on.” Luckily, a large group of hikers came along and she figured she was outnumbered and moved aside. It was hilarious.

We started the hike under partly cloudy skies and watched the weather move in over the mountain tops. We were about a half mile from Iceberg Lake when the rain began, but we decided to continue on. Good call. The views all along the trail are stunning and Iceberg Lake is beautiful. The only wildlife we saw were golden marmots and ptarmigan (no more pugilistic deer). About two miles down on the return trip, the sun came out and it was perfect weather for the rest of the hike.

Wednesday we woke up to howling winds and intermittent rain. It was a good day to just hang out in the RV. We walked to the visitor center and picked more huckleberries, but it never cleared off enough for us to get motivated to do another hike.

Thursday we’re heading out toward Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota. We’ll leave the mountains behind and spend several days crossing a whole lot of empty country. I think you can count on fewer blog posts until we find something more interesting than endless wheat fields and fluffy white clouds.

 

Clouds obscure the top of the mountains.

Walking toward "the wall".

The weather is rolling in.

Amazing views around every turn.

Waterfall stepping down the mountain.

Wildflowers surround a small lake.

We made it! Damp but happy hikers.

"Bonsai" pines in front of Iceberg Lake.

And the sun came out for the trek down.

Rog scoping for wildlife.

Sentinel on duty - golden marmot                                                  Ptarmigan or "mountain chicken" 

On the drive back to our campground we hit a “bear jam”.  There was a mother grizzly and her cub in a meadow near the road. Unfortunately, the dense vegetation made it hard to get a good picture, but I was thrilled to see a grizzly (from a safe distance!).

Momma grizzly...

...and her little cub too.