Hungry Horse News

As summer heats up, so does bear activity and Glacier National Park is seeing some popular trails closed due to bear activity or from bears eating carcasses of dead animals.

Encountering a bear while it feeds on a carcass is extremely dangerous. Bears are very territorial near carcasses and will often charge and bite intruders, including humans, other bears and other scavengers that might try to get at the kill.

Here's a sampling of some of the current closures because of bears:

€ Cracker Lake Trail from Cracker Flats to Cracker Lake due to bear activity. This area - the entire Many Glacier Valley for that matter, is known for its bear activity.

€ Iceberg Lake Trail: Parts or all of this trail close nearly every year because of bear activity. This time, a chunk of trail from Ptarmigan Junction to Iceberg Lake is closed because of a goat carcass nearby.

€ Poia Lake Trail: This trail also had a reported elk carcass, but was just posted for bear activity, not closed, as of presstime.

€ The Piegan Pass trail is closed from Josephine Lake to the Many Glacier Hotel because of grizzly activity.

€ At Marias Pass, the Autumn Creek trail from Marias Pass Junction to western terminus by railroad tracks is closed because of an elk carcass.

It's important to note that trails in the Park open and close due to bears on a frequent basis. For the latest updates, visit a ranger station or go online at http://www.nps.gov/glac/planyourvisit/trailstatusreports.htm

Folks who hike in bear country should carry bear spray and more importantly, make noise while they hike to alert bears of their presence.

The Park also asks hikers to report all bear sightings along trails.