That's when we saw someone ahead of us waving his arms and pointing. We found out he and his wife had been eating lunch on a rock beside the trail, when a bear walked up the trail right beside them! They were warning us that the bear was on the trail right in front of us!
Mark went ahead to talk to the picnickers, and saw the back side of the bear going on up the trail.
We have been trained in bear safety and the proper things to do when encountering a grizzly or black bear in the wild. We both had bear spray with us, and we knew we were supposed to speak softly and back away from a bear. So Denisa isn't sure why she forged straight ahead at full speed--huckleberries in one hand and camera in the other. Mark took this picture from behind. Denisa is in the salmon-colored blouse by the dead tree, and you can see the bear at the top of the picture on the trail.
Against proper protocol, Denisa kept chasing that bear to get a better picture. She snapped another of the bear, showing the white bottom of his back foot as he climbed up the trail.
That's when we saw the grizzly turn off the trail into a little ditch where water was flowing from the snow melt.
We were only 15-20 yards away, taking pictures of the biggest bear we had ever seen. There really are bears at Glacier National Park!
He actually looked right at us, but only in the friendliest way. Is that a smile--or a growl?
There were berry bushes growing in the gully, and he was quite content to snack while we were snapping pictures.
It was interesting to see his berry picking technique as we watched him about 20 yards away.
There were eight of us on the trail together, all taking pictures. For some reason, Denisa was on the front row. She still had huckleberries in her hand, and more huckleberries on her breath. That's probably not the best plan for meeting a hungry bear. But he seemed to be content with his berries as we continued to take selfie pictures with the bear in the background.
Mark was smarter, hanging on to his bear spray on the back row. He was trying to determine the wind direction for using the bear spray correctly, and how he was going to get between Denisa and that bear. But he didn't have to take such extreme measures as we watched the grizzly move out of the ditch and away from us. We could really see that big hump on his back that is characteristic of the grizzly.
We could also see the long front claws that are characteristic of the grizzly.
He decided to cut across the grassy meadow, so that left the hiking trail now open to us.
We continued up the trail, snapping pictures of that big bear making his way across that big meadow. The bear is at the bottom of the picture below, almost lost in the beautiful scenery around him.
We were way above him on the trail, obviously safe now, but still feeling an adrenaline rush from our close encounter with such a majestic creature.
We continued climbing on the trail, and we could hear a group hiking behind us. They were using their best bear scare tactics--clapping their hands often and calling out with their voices. These are good methods of letting a bear know that a human is near, and is the best way to avoid startling a bear. A surprised bear is not a good thing.
We were at the top of the trail for a couple minutes, telling our bear story to other hikers. We were just starting to show off our bear pictures to people coming down the trail in the opposite direction. Some were sad to have missed seeing it, others were relieved. That's when we heard a commotion, and we turned to take a picture of another bear coming through the forest just twenty yards from us.
In fact, Denisa caught this picture of Mark taking a picture of the bear. That just shows how close he was.
We found out that the noisy group behind us was making such a commotion because they had seen this bear on the trail in front of them. That means that bear was following us on the trail for the last mile or so!
The bear left the forest and posed for us in the wide open meadow. For our entertainment, he did some hunting while we watched.
He started digging with his front paws, much like a dog digging a hole.
He was after the ground squirrels, and he dug quite a hole while we were watching. At one time he had his entire head inside that hole.
We never saw him catch anything, but later we checked out the hole he had dug. There were many bear-nose-sized holes where he was chasing ground squirrels in their den.
He finally gave up on squirrel hunting, turning his dusty face to the crowd of hikers watching him.
After he gave up on the ground squirrel meal, he moved out across the high meadow. By this time, around 50 people had gathered to watch him from a distance. It was a beautiful background with the teal-colored Grinnell Lake behind him.
The two hikers on the bottom right of the picture below don't even know that a grizzly bear is behind them on the trail. The bear looks tiny in the far left side of the picture. That sounds familiar, as the same thing had happened to us.
As if we didn't have enough wildlife pictures, a herd of big horn sheep was also keeping an eye on the bear.
What a thrilling experience to see two different grizzlies for so long and so close! We talked to a ranger that was leading a large group of hikers up the trail. They arrived at the top while the second bear was still digging. He has worked as a ranger at Glacier National Park for 23 years, and this was his first close-up encounter with a grizzly. So today we were doubly blessed with two peaceful grizzlies on the trail! We have certainly wandered into one of the "grizzliest" of God's wonders today!
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