During my visit to Crystal Lake Caverns on Day 34 I spoke shortly on the effects of sacrificing small parts of nature to promote preservation of itself at large. Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks, both, show exactly what this means by changing the way nature interacts with human activity. My friend from Missoula and I went on two long hikes during our visit to Glacier National Park, and during both we noticed abnormal wildlife patterns, starting with our first drive through the park.
We arrived at the park only to find out that, like the rest of the continent, this winter had an abnormally high amount of precipitation and the snow pack was still blocking the pass. We would only be able to experience the Western portion of the park. We drove as far as we could and camped at the end, in the Avalanche Creek campground. The campsites are simple, a firepit and picnic bench with the wooded campsite, and no showers or hot water available. It was right next to the first trail we would hike that night, so we decided to go check out some of the lakes and rivers before we took hit the trail.
On the drive back towards the western entrance we came across some traffic, which usually indicates some sort of wildlife has captured the attention of tourists. After sitting for a short time waiting for the cars to take their turn at taking pictures, we saw the black bear begin to wander around the cars. He took his time, looking into the cars to see who would, unintelligibly, offer him food.
The lakes here are glacial, and the biggest one that we were able to see was Lake McDonald. As may be obvious, a glacial lake is formed by a glacier, in the case of Lake McDonald, one that was over 2000 feet thick. As the thick river of ice slides down during melts it bulldozes dirt and rock in front of it, forming a wall called a terminal moraine. When the glacier receding as the climate warmed, the moraine was left behind, damming a lake that stretches to depths of 472 feet.
When we returned to our campsite we decided it was time to hike the Avalanche Creek Trail so that we could make it back before dark. We had been joking about the bear mace marketed to the city slickers, selling for a whopping $55 per can at the stores within the park. The black bears aren’t anything to worry about, but grizzlies can get pretty aggressive if they are startled by a humans. As long as you follow some common sense rules about wildlife they don’t normally bother you, but as has been indicated in the past few days these animals aren’t quite like normal wild animals. They are used to humans.
As we made our way up the 2 mile, 500 foot elevation gain trail (4 miles round trip), wildflowers in bloom everywhere indicating that spring had indeed sprung, we ran across a snowshoe hare. The rabbit hopped around nonchalant as we admired it. It wasn’t until I got within a few feet to take some pictures that he began to hop away. We made out way to the end of the trail that terminated at Avalanche Lake, which was incredibly muddy and wet. Along the north side of the trail Avalanche Creek followed along, carving out the bright red bedrock into curvy, smooth canyons. We laughed at the bear bells we could hear ringing throughout the woods. Fear does a number on people….
On the way back down the trail to our campsite my friend stopped me mid-step. A deer, barely 10 feet away, walked across the trail and right next to us. Like the hare, she walked slowly along as if we were passing in a hallway. I had never been so close to a deer before, and it didn’t even have it’s tail up in alarm. With each animal we came across that had zero fear of humans we began to understand the excessive warnings throughout the park. These animals weren’t exactly wild: They were a hybrid of wild and domestic. The most dangerous type of wild animals, the kind that are so used to humans they think nothing of walking within arm’s reach.
The next day we hiked another trail, a 7 mile hike on the McDonald Lake Trail. It is a mostly flat trail that follows along the western side of the lake, heading in a general NE direction. A large portion of the hike goes along an area that suffered from a wildfire not too many years ago. The skeletons of trees stand tall, and wildflowers were blooming everywhere. We also noticed bear scat fairly often right on the trail, many of them obviously too large to be a black bear. Maybe those bear bells weren’t so goofy after all.
Glacier National Park was beautiful. The mountains were topped with snow, the lakes were clear and cold, and the scenery was green and in bloom. Ironically, although I had come to Glacier National Park in hopes to see a glacier there was too much snow on the trails to get to a glacier.
I often wonder if people who live in big cities think that the wilderness really is like this, if they think wildlife come right up to you like they do in Yellowstone and Glacier. If we sacrifice some of nature to promote funding for preservation of itself at large, are we giving people the wrong idea? How many people feel comfortable preserving a place where the animals are dangerously used to humans, and attacks aren’t as uncommon as they are in the true wild.
Perhaps the West could enlighten me, as it was time to start heading towards the coast. This about as far north as I would be going for the remainder of my trip. Time to start getting warmer.
-Nicole
