Stampeding to Calgary - a bit late 20th August Bear with me :D

parisdisneyfan · 21 Aug 18, 03:17 AM

Woke to rain and clouds but the possibility of sun and reduced smoke later. Booked our Glacier Trip for Wednesday at 2pm after checking weather forecast. Also read that Bison have been reintroduced to the parks and are in the Panther Valley, which is near the glacier
calgaryherald/news/local...e-in-140-years

Ordered bag lunches from the café downstairs, tomato basil chicken sandwich with brownie and water and a caesar salad with carrot cake and water. We will probably mix and match these. We left the room around 11 and thought we would head down to Kananskis again so on to hwy 1 towards Calgary. We couldn’t remember where we had joined it when we came back the other day so we turned off at a sign to Lac des Arcs, which was actually a dead end so we were turning round and what did we see? A BEAR! It just ambled out of the woods and into a garden and started munching, it was just like you see them on tv as it would sit down and tumble over. Anyway we sat in the car watching from about 25 m away, luckily dh had the camera on the back seat with his big lens on. We know that was too close but we stayed in the car and if we had moved away we wouldn’t have seen it, we also would have driven off if it had approached us. We just sat there for almost ½ hour watching, sometimes we could see it and sometimes just the branches and bushes moving and a glimpse of it. Finally it crossed the road and went into to a small patch of woods in the centre of the road. We waited a few minutes more but we guess it decided to have a nap! Dh hasn't edited them yet so this is the only one he would let me have!

After a couple more detours and wrong turns we headed down the 40 but nothing quite made up for the morning. We saw some Rocky Mountain Sheep on the road who were so blasé about traffic they stood and peed for ages, one each side of the road! We stopped again at the Peter Lougheed Centre and discovered there had been a grizzly sighting on the unmade road at a place called Burstall Pass, which is about halfway along. It wasn’t for us though!

We checked out the lakes again just in case there were any moose about but only footprints and then headed back to the hotel. As it was still early we decided to pop up to Grassi Lakes as had heard good things about that trail. When we got there we found that it was actually quite a hike, although classed as beginner!, so just walked along the canal a bit before heading down home.

Tea of spag bol, salad and probably ice cream for supper as we reflect on our bear sighting!

Gunna · 21 Aug 18, 06:44 AM

What a great sighting of the bear, really pleased you’ve seen one. It’s such a great experience and the photo is amazing.

**jocat** · 21 Aug 18, 08:43 AM

So glad you finally got to see a bear.

What a fabulous photo - he’s just beautiful. How lovely to have all that time to watch him from the safety of your car. I’d have been beaming for the rest of the day!

It really is just a matter of luck and being in the right place at the right time isn’t it?

**anji** · 21 Aug 18, 09:17 AM

Yay, so happy you saw your bear!

**WileyCoyote** · 25 Aug 18, 08:08 PM

Awesome bear pic. How fab. What a great day.

21 Aug 18, 03:17 AM	#1
	21 Aug 18, 03:17 AM parisdisneyfan Imagineer
parisdisneyfan Imagineer Join Date: Feb 08	Stampeding to Calgary - a bit late 20th August Bear with me :D Woke to rain and clouds but the possibility of sun and reduced smoke later. Booked our Glacier Trip for Wednesday at 2pm after checking weather forecast. Also read that Bison have been reintroduced to the parks and are in the Panther Valley, which is near the glacier calgaryherald/news/local...e-in-140-years Ordered bag lunches from the café downstairs, tomato basil chicken sandwich with brownie and water and a caesar salad with carrot cake and water. We will probably mix and match these. We left the room around 11 and thought we would head down to Kananskis again so on to hwy 1 towards Calgary. We couldn’t remember where we had joined it when we came back the other day so we turned off at a sign to Lac des Arcs, which was actually a dead end so we were turning round and what did we see? A BEAR! It just ambled out of the woods and into a garden and started munching, it was just like you see them on tv as it would sit down and tumble over. Anyway we sat in the car watching from about 25 m away, luckily dh had the camera on the back seat with his big lens on. We know that was too close but we stayed in the car and if we had moved away we wouldn’t have seen it, we also would have driven off if it had approached us. We just sat there for almost ½ hour watching, sometimes we could see it and sometimes just the branches and bushes moving and a glimpse of it. Finally it crossed the road and went into to a small patch of woods in the centre of the road. We waited a few minutes more but we guess it decided to have a nap! Dh hasn't edited them yet so this is the only one he would let me have! After a couple more detours and wrong turns we headed down the 40 but nothing quite made up for the morning. We saw some Rocky Mountain Sheep on the road who were so blasé about traffic they stood and peed for ages, one each side of the road! We stopped again at the Peter Lougheed Centre and discovered there had been a grizzly sighting on the unmade road at a place called Burstall Pass, which is about halfway along. It wasn’t for us though! We checked out the lakes again just in case there were any moose about but only footprints and then headed back to the hotel. As it was still early we decided to pop up to Grassi Lakes as had heard good things about that trail. When we got there we found that it was actually quite a hike, although classed as beginner!, so just walked along the canal a bit before heading down home. Tea of spag bol, salad and probably ice cream for supper as we reflect on our bear sighting! __________________ Edited at 03:19 AM.