Day 8: Be Bear Aware

  Today was the day we were going to drive to the eastern part of the park.  It also meant we were going to be driving through the BlackFeet Reservation again.  Everyone made sure to bring a face masks, since we needed them the last time we were within the reservation.

  The drive along 49 is super pretty.  The roads get pretty windy and it sometimes feels like you might drive off the edge, but it was worth it.  There were even some fresh growth of trees along the way, they were cute.  We showed our pass and entered at the East Glacier Park Village and drove to Many Glacier.  When I had heard everyone talking about it yesterday, I thought they kept saying Mini Glacier.

  We also saw about four interesting looking cars.  They looked super vintage and it made us wonder if a meet-up had happened.  I want to join that club, but I don't think I can afford it.

  We parked and a nice Park Ranger asked us to put our cooler into the cab of the truck.  She said that there had been a lot of bear activity lately and they know food can be found in coolers.  The plan was to take the Swiftcurrent Lake Loop Trail to Grinnell Lake.  At one point we saw a sign with two different distances to the lake.  The same Park Ranger was walking the path and we asked her the difference.  They are just on either side of the lake.  One was a bit longer, more sunny, and also more popular.  We went with the other one.  From the car to the lake we saw  a chipmunk in the parking lot, a duck, a weasel/mink, and a squirrel.

  It was so pretty and worth hiking in a bit of mud, even if some parts were the sticky mud that makes gross sounds.  I did like the swaying bride we had to walk over, it could sway so much that they limited it to one hiker at a time.

  It was so strange standing on the snow in June getting breezes that alternated between being warm and cold.
  We saw more people heading out as we headed back than we saw when we were heading out.  It was interesting to see people's footwear.  There were a lot of hiking boots, some sneakers, and even a guy with toe-loop sandals and toe socks.
  I don't know if it was because it was a more flat hike, or because there was more standing around time, but my feet were hurting a lot more today than they were on Friday.  It was a shorter distance too. 

  Few more stops to get Heather some more stamps.  Not all the sections of the roads in the park are open yet, so we wanted to see how far in we could go before the road was closed.  We got to the Gunsight Pass Trail before we found the Road Closed stop.

  We saw some Park Rangers and visitors looking and pointing at something.  Turns out a bear was digging for something and everyone had to stop and look.  We weren't any different.  The inconvenient part was that the bear was part of the way between stops.  That meant that the Park Rangers had to try and keep people from stopping in the middle of the road and also keep the pedestrians from getting run over.  Heather and I hoped out of the cars in a quick stop, then Bill and Jim went to a spot they could turn around and come back to get us.  I had my short lense on, so I couldn't zoom as much as I would have liked to, but I think the picture came out pretty well anyway.

  We saw this statue on the way in.  We tried to stop and get more information about it but there was a sign saying that the area was closed.  I did at least get a picture of it out the truck window.  There were some metal teepees off to the side, but they were a bit far away to try and get in the picture.

  Since it was late we stopped at the Snowgoose Grill in St Mary Village.  I got the Bison Chorizo Quesadilla and it was really good.  I was even nice enough to give Bill one of the pieces with a lot of meat in it.  Everyone was pretty much done after that and the almost two hour drive back to the hotel  We had considered staying on the East side when we first planned the trip, but decided not to.