On the morning of day three it was time to pack up and move ourselves over to the east side of the park, specifically to Many Glacier. We had a room in the Many Glacier Hotel reserved. Originally we were supposed to stay at the Swift Current Motor Inn & Cabins (we had a cabin reserved) but due to staffing shortages they moved us over to the Many Glacier Hotel for the night. We actually enjoy staying at the Swift Current Inn as it’s a little less busy and it’s closer to Fishercap Lake which we like to visit in the mornings and evenings. It also has more casual dining options including pizza and breakfast served all day. The Many Glacier Hotel is more historic and worth a stay however if you are in the area. You can’t beat the view from the deck overlooking Swiftcurrent Lake. The Swiss inspired stylings of the motel is fun to experience as well.
While traveling to the east side, we decided we better pull into the Goat Lick Overlook again after our amazing experience the night before. We were hoping with the rain having passed that the conditions might be better for viewing. There were goats there again, but fewer than before and the group that was closest the night before was no longer there, so the photographic opportunities I was hoping for did not happen. But it was still fun to watch the mountain goats some more. Since there were no goats close by, I got out my tripod with my 600mm lens and the 1.4x teleconverter to bring them in as close as possible. I was pretty popular with other people at the overlook when they saw me with so much gear out. I even let a couple fellow Canon shooters borrow my long lens on their cameras to get a couple shots.
A mountain goat nanny and her kid at Goat Lick Overlook. As always, depending your device, you can click on any of the pictures in my blogs for a full screen view.
Another nanny and kid from the overlook.
On our way into Many Glacier we spotted two black bears and a grizzly bear. So it was a pretty good start to our stay over there. As was the case on day one, we knew we had some time before we could check into our hotel, so we decided to take a hike up to Apikuni Falls. We had driven by the trailhead many times over the years (it is often closed due to bear activity though) but had never actually done the hike. It is not a long hike, less than 2 miles round trip, but it is pretty much straight up the whole way and our legs were not fresh after all of the hiking the day before. With the higher than normal water levels this spring, I am guessing it was a good time to visit the falls. I am assuming on a normal year or later in the season it would not be as impressive.
Grizzly bear near Lake Sherburne in Many Glacier - Glacier National Park.
Another shot of the grizzly bear as we were coming into Many Glacier.
A little wider shot of the grizzly bear. It appeared to be flipping over rocks and digging up roots.
One of the black bears we observed coming into the park. This one was not far from the Apikuni Falls trailhead, but on the other side of the road. Typically we see more grizzly bears in that area and not black bears.
A head on shot of the black bear in Many Glacier. You can really tell how large of a black bear it was from this perspective.
Apikuni Falls as seen from the trail leading up to the falls. Since I wanted to travel light, I just grabbed my Canon R6 and my 24-70 lens.
After finishing our hike and looking around a little bit we were able to check into our hotel room. We spent a little bit of time relaxing before it was time to go out and do some wildlife viewing. We started our evening at Fischercap Lake, hoping to find some moose that frequent the area. The lake, as was the case everywhere, was higher than normal so there was not a lot of shoreline to set up on. We were visited by a couple of white-tail deer while we waited for moose. They were obviously very habituated to people as they were getting uncomfortably close. Eventually a young cow moose did appear along the willows at the end of the lake. She was nursing a pretty sizable wound on her back leg. I am guessing it was probably from a bear attack. She eventually wandered off, and nothing else was showing up, so we decided to load up and see if we could find some bears. It didn’t take us long and we did find two grizzly bears. We talked to the rangers and they told us it was a mating pair. They knew the female as it had been previously collared and the male had appeared the day before. The rangers were very patient and interactive and were very accommodating to people trying to get pictures. Maybe because it was early in the season or because the crowds were still low, they were way more chill than usual when it comes to managing the crowds and the grizzly bears. For the most part everyone that was there viewing the bears were well behaved, so that might have contributed to the positive experience with the park rangers as well. After a while we decided to head down the road and see if we could find anything else and let someone else have our spot along the road. We did not see anything else that evening and went back to the hotel for some rest. We enjoyed some time out on the deck watching the sunset behind the mountains at Swiftcurrent Lake.
A young cow moose nursing an injury at Fishercap Lake - Many Glacier.
The young moose again in the willows along the edge of Fishercap Lake. Willow is one of the moose’s favorite foods, especially when it’s new growth. They also enjoy eating the aquatic vegetation that grows in the lake.
A male and female grizzly bear with some of the surrounding environment along Lake Sherburne in Many Glacier.
The male grizzly bear.
The female grizzly bear.
The male grizzly bear looking back.
A little tighter shot on the male grizzly bear. Please make sure you follow park rules and keep your distance from the wildlife. All of these images were shot on long lenses so I could maintain a safe distance.
The next morning, day 4, we got up and decided to see what we could find before we had to head for home. We couldn’t decide if we wanted to try Fishercap Lake one more time, or see what else was out there. We decided to pass on Fishercap due to not seeing a lot the night before. We were able to find the two grizzly bears again from the night before, as they had not gone far. We watched them for a while and then continued down the road towards the main entrance and found a black bear right alongside the road. I got a few pictures on my cell phone, but that was all. Since we didn’t see anything else and a crowd was starting to form back at the pair of grizzly bears, we decided to drive down towards Fishercap just to see if anything was down there. We didn’t even get as far as the lake and we saw a big bull moose out in one of the openings. So we watched him for a while and decided we probably couldn't do much better than that anyway, and called it good for the morning without going to Fishercap Lake. We went back to the motel to pack up and then headed home. I had to be home to pick up our dogs from the kennel so we knew we couldn't stay too long.
A bull moose in Many Glacier - Glacier National Park. This was also with my Canon R6 and the Canon 100-500 as my memory card was full in my R5 and I didn’t have time to switch.
More of an environmental shot with the bull moose to include the mountains in the background.
One more shot of the bull moose in velvet grazing on the underbrush.
All in all, despite all of the closures, it was still a great trip. In total we saw 5 grizzly bears (some more than once, but 5 individual bears) 3 black bears, a whole bunch of mountain goats, 2 moose, a lot of waterfalls, tons of wild flowers, and all of the scenery you could take in. I am very blessed to live where I do, so close to so much natural beauty. For the landscape pictures I was primarily using an adapted Canon EF 24-70 2.8 II lens. I did break out my Canon EF 16-35 2.8 III lens a couple of times for some of the larger vista shots. I don’t like how that lens behaves with the stabilization in video mode with my Canon R5 though, so I don’t tend to use it a lot when I know I am going to be going back and forth between stills and video. I sometimes prefer to just make a panorama using my 24-70 if it’s not wide enough. For the wildlife I was mostly using my new Canon RF 100-500 lens. It was a lot of run and gun photo/video so I didn’t have a lot of time to get out a tripod and setup my Canon 600mm F4 II lens. I was able to use it a couple of times this trip, but not as much as I would have liked. I may need to think of a different strategy for how to use my 600 F4 in the future in those situations. Maybe a monopod? Or maybe I need to look into a tripod that’s a little quicker/easier to deploy. The Canon 100-500 worked well and for the most part I was happy with it… But it will never give me the quality (or the reach) of my 600mm F4.