Were the flashing lights really necessary?

Briefly interrupting the bear blog to write about all of the other lame, non-bear-related things we did today.

(That is false, I'm sneaking some bear stuff in here too.)

We had a busy day planned, so we started early by driving to the Many Glacier area of the park.  The guide book suggested that the moose liked to hang out at Fishercap Lake, which was a short walk from the Swiftcurrent Motor Inn parking area and trailhead.

We checked out the lakeshore and didn't see any moose yet, so Mom stayed behind to keep an eye out, and Emily and I continued on the trail.  

The trail was beautiful, though not as level as this picture implies.

But we made it! Emily & I at our destination- Red Rock Falls.

Here are the falls without our dopey faces blocking the view.

We hiked back to the trailhead, and, not seeing Mom, looked for her in the restaurant and gift shop at the Swiftcurrent Motor Inn.  We didn't see her, but we did see a crowd of people gathered across the parking lot, looking up at the mountains behind the lodge.  With cameras.  Pointing and smiling and... BEARS!  Up on the mountain were 3 grizzly bears foraging for berries.  They were pretty high up and difficult to see, but awesome nonetheless.  

2 of the 3 bears up on the mountain face.

We eventually re-connected with Mom, got back into the Moosefinder 5000, and headed north.  We were on our way to Waterton Lakes National Park, in Canada!  Waterton and Glacier share a border and are officially known as an International Peace Park, which is pretty cool.  It took about an hour and a half to drive to the Canadian entrance to the park in Alberta.

Bear-friendly in English and in French!

There was another wildfire, the Boundary fire, burning along the west side of the park, so we were somewhat limited in the areas we could visit, but to be honest, we had more of an "urban" adventure planned for the afternoon.

Since Emily is legally required to have poutine every time she goes to Canada*, we had predetermined that our best option was Weiners of Waterton, a hot dog shop that sells sides of poutine.  We purchased an order to share, drove to the nearby Prince of Wales hotel, dropped Mom off, and sat in the parking lot chowing down on fries with cheese and gravy.

Living our best life.

We were at the Prince of Wales Hotel to indulge in a slightly classier culinary indulgence, afternoon tea!

Full disclosure- I took them off for the picture, but it was so sunny that I drank three cups of very classy tea, and ate all of my very classy snacks, with sunglasses on. Yes, inside.

Can't beat the view. Can't beat the scones.

Sadly, we couldn't stay too long in Waterton, because we had tickets on the 4:30 boat cruise back at Many Glacier.  So we bid farewell to Canada and drove the hour and a half back south.  The cruise left from the Many Glacier Hotel and first toured Swiftcurrent Lake.  

View of Many Glacier Lodge from aboard the Chief Two Guns boat.

At the far end of the lake, we disembarked and hiked a quarter mile through the woods to Lake Josephine***.  It was on the boat on Lake Josephine that things really started to get awesome:

More bears!!!

Moose!  This lovely lady was dipping in and out of the water, munching on some aquatic plants.

Sunshine! Locals said this was the clearest day they'd had in the last 6 weeks.

Mountain goats! We saw about 10 in total, waaaaaaaaaaaay up high on the mountains.

So all in all, the day was busy and tremendously successful.  We saw lots of wildlife, Emily got poutine, Mom did a great job on the steep hike between the boats, and the weather cooperated better than we had even hoped for.

We were on our way out of the park when Emily, who was driving, noticed two more bears in a valley off to the right.  I told her to stop the car and she protested, something about "we're not allowed to park here", but I was already opening the car door and rushing out.

Look at these gigantic bears!

I could have stood there forever taking pictures, well technically, sat there- it was very windy and hard to stabilize the camera and zoom while standing.  So I found a big rock and was just getting settled in when I heard an angry voice hissing, "Beth! Beth! Get back in the car!!!"  The angry voice belonged to Emily, and as I turned to roll my eyes at her, I saw a Park Ranger truck driving toward us WITH ITS LIGHTS FLASHING.  No siren, but I assume that was only so as not to disturb the animals.  We were getting pulled over by the Park Ranger (for, ironically, being pulled over).  The ranger didn't get out of her truck, but she did glare at me and literally didn't take her eyes off of me until I was back in the car and we were back on the road.

There may have been an I-told-you-so involved in this story but honestly I wasn't listening because did you see the amazing bear pictures???

Great day.

*Seriously**, Customs and Border Patrol won't let her back in unless she provides a detailed review of her poutine experience(s).

**Okay, not seriously, but here's what seriously did happen at the border on our way back in:

Customs Agent: What are your names, where are you from, etc., etc.

Beth, Mom & Emily: Blah, blah, blah.

Customs Agent: Do you have any produce with you?

Beth: No.

Customs Agent: Open the trunk please.

Beth: Okay.

Customs Agent: Open the cooler please.

Beth: Uh...okay.

Mom: We have carrot sticks.

Customs Agent: Do you have any weapons with you, any firearms?

Beth: No.

Customs Agent: Really, three women traveling alone?

Beth: ???

Customs Agent: Have a nice day.

***Named (according to Jared the raft guide) after Glacier's famous bootlegger, Josephine, who would listen for the horn blasts of the train in the night, and would roll down the hill with as many barrels of moonshine as the train horn had blasted to request.