New Family Encounter Black Bear On Trail

Occurred on June 15, 2023 / West Glacier, Montana, USA

Info from Licensor: "We encountered a black bear on our family hike on July 15, 2023, around Bowman Lake in Glacier National Park, Montana. We’ve seen wildlife on hikes before, but this was too close for comfort. And everything hits differently when you’re carrying a baby on your back.

We were nearing the end of our hike when we came upon the black bear. My GoPro captured the encounter. My husband and I were hiking with our 10-month-old son, Parks, in a hiking carrier on my back. It's harder to hike with a baby because I have to take care not to trip over a rock, tree root, or branch. It's a lot harder to recover from a stumble with another human on your back. That's part of the reason we didn't see the black bear until we were about 10-15 feet away. We backed up and moved off the trail closer to the lake. When he heard me, he started to move, but was moving parallel to us rather than away from us. He was behind a tree for a short while. My husband grabbed his bear spray and put himself between me and our son, Parks, who was riding in a carrier on my back. Once the bear moved far enough away from us, we hit the trail and continued our hike."