The Beautiful Beaverheads

7/16 – 7/20  We journeyed through the Beaverhead Mountains which were a delightful alpine surprise. Unfortunately our time up high among the rock and ice was limited and some of the trail took us to viewless woodland where we were voraciously attacked by bloodthirsty mosquitos.  Thankfully Deet saved the day!

 We also saw 5 bears!  One afternoon we spied a cinnamon Black Bear and her 2 cubs swimming in a river we were crossing a few hundred yards down. We starled them and they scampered across the meadow but we got a good look at them (and some in our group got photos!)  Another time Candyman (Dan) & Hawkeye heard a strange scratching noise and then saw it was coming from a tiny black bear cub as it scampered high up a pine tree.  We immediately looked for mama bear, who thankfully was further away, but quite worried about her baby. She kept standing up on two legs to look for him until we backed away and baby scampered back to mama.  These sightings were spectacular because we were far away enough to be safe but close enough to get a good look and most importantly, we never came between mama & baby – which can be a dangerous situation!