How much fun can we squeeze into Friday night while not even leaving West Glacier? Of course, there was the mundane unloading the truck, doing a walk around, and making sure the cabin is still in great shape. We also had to admire how sparkling clean the cleaning crew from our property management company had left the cabin. Fantastic job!
Our primary activity is walking… “Let’s take a walk” is uttered by one of us heading off the temptation to simply plop down in an Adirondack chair and just stare at the scenery. Friday night we were excited to witness what the advancement of spring had brought to our favorite walks. We first headed down to Going to the Sun Road which runs right through the middle of West Glacier Village, a short block from StepsAway 254. We crossed and headed toward the Old West Glacier Bridge.
In the winter, this bridge was barely visible under several feet of snow. We had to climb over huge piles of snow just to get onto it. Once on the main part of the bridge, we had to stay away from the edges because the snow was higher than the railings. But the views up and down the Middle Fork of the Flathead River are captivating.
On this night, there was no snow to impede the short walk to the bridge. The sun was still probably an hour or more from setting, but the low sunlight made the river sparkle.
We were excited to be able to take the boundary trail – once across the bridge we are in Glacier National Park proper – back west to the GNP Headquarters. This trail follows the river back to the new West Glacier Bridge.
I know – “Get to the bear part!”, but first just a little history… The view of the Old Bridge from GNP provided a different perspective. The concrete arch was original, but a flood in 1964 destroyed most of the bridges along the river, while this concrete arch survived. It was quickly built up with timbers and used as an emergency entrance to the park until the new bridge in West Glacier was completed.
The very comfortable gravel path made for a leisurely stroll back toward Going to the Sun Road. As the trail turned away from the river and climbed a few feet to the park headquarters I heard, “Is that a real bear?!” Trust me, that will get your attention. I was expecting to see a bear off in the distance, but no. Less than 40 feet from us, staring at us like we were a bowl of ice cream, was a large cinnamon colored black bear. We were crossing right in front of him. (Could have been a her, but I didn’t stop long enough for a close examination!) We hurried up the road a good hundred feet before we were calm enough to get the picture. The bear then crossed the trail and continued toward the new bridge, of course.
The bear’s close proximity forced us to detour a bit and, yes, we walked down the middle of Going to the Sun Road as we approached the new bridge. At this point, every log along the dimly lit road appeared to be another bear!
Back in West Glacier Village, we headed into Freda’s Bar to have a beer and share our latest wildlife adventure. The bar itself is the epitome of a western mountain gathering place. We met a musician, a logger, several park workers, golfers here for a tournament – yes, West Glacier has a golf course – a political operative (another great story) and various other combinations of locals, summer workers, and tourists. Al, our newest favorite bartender, has one of the best, eclectic 70’s rock, country, folk, roots music playlist that I’ve experienced, maybe ever.
After “enough”, we slipped around the back and were at the StepsAway cabin in about a minute. Quite the adventure for having been in town for only about 5 hours!