Glacier National Park

Glacier National Park

I grew up going to Yellowstone National Park my whole life; I just assumed Glacier National Park would be another experience from Yellowstone, but I was wrong. Both parks are breathtaking, but absolutely different and amazing in their own right. 

We were hiking in Glacier and a black bear stood up and growled. The bear was only 5 feet from the trail, and from Hailey and I. We hugged each other as we were scared to death, and attempted to walk (mostly run) away slowly. (The information packet we received advised us to not run.) We gathered with the rest of our family on the trail, and other hikers waiting to pass--Bryan got out bear spray and then we waited. Eventually, the baby cub meandered across the trail, but the mother bear never did. After waiting for what seemed like an eternity, we continued on the path--hoping to have missed both bears. I've never been so close to a bear before in the wild! Prior to Glacier, I read that we may need bear spray, so we picked it up on the way through town convincing the kids that we would never actually need it. We were shocked that we did!