Thursday, July 29, 2010

Hiking to Grinnell Glacier

On our recent trip to Glacier National Park, celebrating its 100 year anniversary, we hiked to Grinnell Glacier. Part of the hike (6 miles up) was cold and rainy and we both wished we had gloves. Some say if you've seen one glacier, you've seen them all, but we are glad we took the hike--all 12 miles of it. There once were 150 glaciers in the park; now there are only 25.

If you read the paper today (July 29) you might have seen that naturalist Jack Hanna had to use his bear spray three times on a bear on this very path. Paul is standing at the exact spot where the bear cub of 125 lbs. or more confronted Jack (or at least it might have been close to the exact spot.) We were there two days earlier without the bear spray. Some would say "hardy;" others might say "foolhardy." In either instance, we think we'll carry bear spray next time we're hiking in the park.

Here's Jennifer above Grinnell Lake far below. Notice the beautiful color characteristic of glacial fed lakes.