Glacier 2022 - Day 4

During the night I woke up and gazed at the stars. The sky was so dark and light pollution so far away that we could see a lot of stars. Some stars you could only see by looking at a different star and then noticing twinkling little dots around it. I gazed around for 20–30 minutes just taking everything in before heading back to sleep.

As the sun rose we turned over in our sleeping bags enjoying not having to get up and get ready to hike. Hunger was what eventually got us out of the tent and we headed over to the food area for breakfast.

I was halfway through eating my oatmeal when Logan exclaimed “oh, that’s a grizzly!” I turned to look and sure enough, it was a grizzly bear. About 30 feet away he sauntered up to a tree, turned around, and rested his back against it. His side was toward us at this point and we were making plenty of noise so he looked over at us — however, he was at the beginning of a back scratch so his head was pointed straight up as he turned it toward us. He didn’t seem surprised to see us and didn’t skip a beat as he scratched his back on the tree. He almost looked like a cartoon character as he scratched up and down and side to side at the same time. Finishing up he dropped down to all fours and walked off without giving us a second glance. My phone was still powered off from the night so I didn’t have a chance to snap any pictures. We breathed a sigh of relief that he wasn’t going to bother us and continued our breakfast with our voices a tad bit louder.

The rest of the day was filled with relaxing fun. We went to the lake and waded around the shore for a while commenting on the different rocks and features of the landscape. We then headed back to camp for some lunch before going down to the waterfall to splash around again. We also waded a little way down the river enjoying the sun and exploring the curves and falls along the way.

As evening approached we chilled in camp before eating our dinner. After filling our bellies we took one last dip in the lake as the sun disappeared behind the mountains. Satisfied with a day of relaxation and recovery we got into the tent to wind the evening down.