Wildlife at the continental divide

Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep (males).

While national parks are often treasures of biodiversity, I saw more large animal species at Glacier NP this month than any other park in the western US that I’ve visited to date. The first wildlife encounters were at Logan Pass early on the first day of hiking. Logan Pass is along the “Going to the Sun Road” that crosses Glacier National Park from the southwest to east side of the park. Here the Continental Divide is at an elevation of over 6000 ft separating watersheds draining to the Pacific from rivers that are eventually bound for Hudson Bay or the Gulf of Mexico. Leading up to Logan Pass from the southwest, the Sun road is narrow and winding with rocky cliffs looming above.

At Logan Pass we had barely started along the Highline trail when we encountered the first species of large animals: a group of 11 Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep grazing in a meadow dotted with yellow glacier lilies. Their thick corrugated horns curve backwards, down, and then point forward, forming a nearly complete circle on either sides of their heads. The animals leisurely grazed on the short plants and occasionally lightly tousled with each other.

Not much farther along the Highline trail the next species encountered was the snow white mountain goat. The first animal was perched on a rock near and above the trail, unnerved by the hikers passing by. It was probably well accustomed to the crowds at what seemed to be a very popular park trial. Further north, a second goat approached me from behind through the shrubs, as I was intently photographing small flowers on the upslope-side of the trail. When I turned because of the sound, there was the goat at a distance of no more than 10 feet from where I was standing. I froze in place while it scampered a bit along the trail and then disappeared.

As per park rules, one is supposed to remain a certain distance from wildlife, not approach these large animals, and of course not feed them. These are all very understandable for both human safety and wilderness considerations alike, but unfortunately, the distance rule isn’t always the easiest to comply with. One faces a conundrum when an animal parks it close to a trail that one has intended to hike. Worse, some animals simply ignore the park rules completely as when they approach a plant enthusiast minding his own business taking photos of the charismatic flora. There was also the chipmunk that scurried to within a foot of where I was sitting in sand by the edge of a lake hoping to get a handout.

The Highland Trail left a good impression as far was wildlife was concerned so I returned to Logan Pass in the early morning of our final day at Glacier with the hope of seeing a goat again (from a safer distance). The sun rose coloring the clouds to the east in pink and then in yellow. Only a few cars and people were present in the large parking lot next to the visitor center, a significant change from the visit two days prior during mid-day.

It turns out that I didn’t see a mountain goat that day, but the bighorn sheep, 11 in number again, entered the parking lot soon after I parked the car. With their noses down they were apparently looking for something delicious in this barren landscape of asphalt. A pair of animals would occasionally abut horns, sending a knocking sound through the area, or a few would intermittently dash a few meters as they otherwise casually wandered about the parking lot. At one point, a small group of sheep quickly assembled and pointed their noses to the ground upon suspecting that a fellow had found something interesting in the terrain of the parking lot.

Black bear at Glacier National Park.

The other exciting observation, because I’ve only seen them a few times in my life in the wild, was that of the black bear. Glacier has both black and grizzly bears. On the first day, farther along the Sun road en route to the east end of the park, we joined a spontaneous crowd that had gathered to observe a large black bear and several cubs walking in the distance on the mountainside through shrubs. Mom was deep black; the cubs were brown. The telephoto lens was key to getting any decent photographs of these animals, though none of my shots turned out too great.

The other mammals I observed in the park over our short visit were deer, chipmunks, shaggy marmots, and many ground squirrels, the latter busily scurrying about like seemingly all squirrels do everywhere.

I don’t normally encounter so many large mammals on my hiking or backpacking excursions, either because of circumstance, being accompanied on hikes by my less-than-quiet kids, or potentially because of the increasing rarity of large animals in natural ecosystems. Nevertheless, Glacier didn’t disappoint in this regard. 

Adult black bear and cubs, Glacier National Park.