Jul 082007
Did I forget to mention to you all that I was going on vacation? AGAIN? A week after I had just been on vacation? For another WHOLE WEEK? I think I did. And I suck for it.
In my defense, I was sick and charged with the job of preparing five people to go to the Canadian Rockies for a whole week. And I was menstruating. TMI, I know.
Anyway, the vacation was nice and all that blah blah blah! We hiked and played and ate a TON of ice cream in one of the most beautiful places on earth.
Plus we were visited by this guy:
IN OUR BACK YARD!
And our cabin was about half a block away from this place:
And we hiked up this little mountain thingy and took this picture:
of where we were going to to swimming in the FREEZING GLACIER WATER. And then we did. Go swimming. In it. Well, some of us anyway.
Plus, we were lucky enough to be there in Canada on July 1st, which happens to be Canada Day! And everyone there is so nice, that at least 50 or more strangers wished me a Happy Canada Day. I love our neighbors to the north. But once again, I’m happy to be home.
Great pics! Is that a grizzly? The closest we ever came to a grizzly encounter was when we were camping at the Rising Sun campground and the ranger came around to each campsite to warn everyone that a couple of grizzlies were sited at a garbage dumpster on the campgrounds and to use caution when going to the restrooms, and not to leave food in our tents, etc. I did come face to face with a Bighorn sheep, though. Scared the shit out of me. I was walking through a parking lot, and one waltzed out from behind an SUV and was right nose to nose with me! I did muster up the courage to take a quick pic before running like the wind!
I should have said that Rising Sun campground is in Glacier National Park in northern Montana.
That is a black bear, they are smaller and less agressive than grizzly bears. That lil guy was totally lost down in the town and causing all kinds of grief to the Waterton Lakes National park service people. Waterton just happens to be on the Canadian side of Glacier National Park.
danica, we went rowing on a boat there on the lake in Waterton. The kids were small at the time. We let them take turns rowing sometimes and they would row the boat in circles and we would go nowhere. Those were good times.
The bear looks rather orangy-brown with the sun shining on him. I take it you took that shot with a zoom lens? How far was the hike up the mountain? We went on the big 7-mile glacier hike when we were there. Actually, hubby had us do all the hikes and I thought I was going to die from soreness. I lost 12 pounds in the two weeks we were there and was already thin at the time. Now I would not be able to get my pudgy middle-aged self through a half-mile in the mountains.
We were all out in the yard of our cabin (kids and all) getting ready for a bike ride when the bear casually walked up into the yard. We had all the kids go inside and Chris stayed out,taking pictures, because he lives life on the edge I guess. So he took that picture with our normal lens because he was standing only about 20 feet from that bear. Then he did a little HDR treatment to the picture which makes the colors look a bit richer. Black bears can be black or brown or any shade inbetween, they are just called black bears because of someones lack of imagination I guess.