Danielle's column: Bear watch
It was bound to be an amazing weekend. My Milwaukee friend Molly was visiting Plains for the week and having never seen mountains before, I decided to pull out all the stops and embark on an adventure through the Montana wilderness.
It was bound to be an amazing weekend. My Milwaukee friend Molly was visiting Plains for the week and having never seen mountains before, I decided to pull out all the stops and embark on an adventure through the Montana wilderness.
My biggest fears for the weekend were that I would end up lost on the way to Glacier National Park and that we wouldn't see any bison at the Bison Range.
Decked out in sneakers and sweatshirts, with an old fashioned $4.99 disposable camera in hand, we set out on our first sight-seeing adventure to Glacier. I was determined to see a bear as that has been one of my main goals since I moved to Montana eight months ago.
The drive to Glacier went remarkably fast as Molly and I caught up with standard girl talk, pausing occasionally for a car-karaoke break. When we arrived at the Visitor Center, Molly bought a map for me to consult in case we got lost. I am inept at reading all maps and told Molly we just have to remember what way we came in and to not bother taking the map out of its packaging and save it as a souvenir.
The trails were still snow covered and icy, and on our first walk to the waterfall Molly had seen when she googled Glacier was slow as both of us were wearing old sneakers without traction and had to walk with our hands in our sleeves because I forgot to pack mittens.
Despite the chill to the air, the scenery was beautiful. I felt like I came through a cupboard and landed in Narnia. I already knew Montana is beautiful. Every day I leave my apartment I am reminded of that, but I had no idea I lived so close to not one, but two doorways into Montana wildlife, that being Glacier and the Bison Range.
We spent three hours in the park, mostly driving as the walk to the waterfall froze our feet.
We took our final turn down a gravel road as a last minute route before heading back home, hoping to see at least one animal. After driving for about ten minutes I assumed it just wasn't our lucky day to see wildlife.
Trying to find a good place to pop a U-turn and head back the way I came, Molly spotted a deer hanging out by the side of the road. I turned the car around as Molly wound up the disposable camera to take a picture.
I slowed the car to a crawl looking for the deer and saw a blur of black in the corner of my eye. I quickly realized it was a black bear. A gigantic black bear. For some reason, I panicked and locked the car doors as if the bear was going to politely open the door before dragging me out to eat me. Molly had to talk me out of stomping on the gas, repeatedly saying the bear is harmless as long as we don't bother it.
After she calmed me down, I stopped and studied the bear. It walked slowly, not really seeming to have any destination. After walking five feet down the road, the bear must have gotten tired from all the exercise and laid down horizontally in the middle of the road and took a snooze.
Molly and I decided to make our way back to Plains deeming our first trip to Glacier a huge success as neither of us were eaten by a hungry bear.
It was a weekend full of wildlife as the two of us headed to the Bison Range the next day for the Red Sleep drive where we saw an abundance of deer, antelope and bison.
Who knew an array of sights were so close to me and so easily accessible? Not to mention, inexpensive entertainment.