Great Falls, MT

June 2012

Nikki, Alicia, Gail, and I spent the weekend in Great Falls with Dani at her grandparents' home. We ate breakfast at Faster Basset, an establishment that serves the most delicious crepes I have ever eaten.

Crepes and basset hounds, what could be better? :)

Spinach, applewood smoke bacon, feta crepe & lemon curd crepe

Nikki & Alicia

After breakfast, we wandered around the farmers' market. There were fruits and vegetables of all kinds, homemade fudge and baked goods, quilts, living history reenactors, handmade jewelry, and artwork.

Nikki and I shared a bag of fresh kettle corn. So yummy!

Gail, Nikki, & Alicia

Dani found a shop that sold homemade chocolate covered strawberries--she was overjoyed! :)

Our trip to Great Falls was the first time in over a month that we had been in civilization for more than just a few hours. Needless to say, we ate...a lot. This picture is of us enjoying a picnic lunch from Taco John's and Taco Bell. :)

Sea gulls in Montana--who knew?

~Sunday afternoon picnic in the park~

~Feeding the ducks and geese~

We joined Dani's grandparents at Macaroni Grille for supper Sunday night. We had a wonderful time playing the Top 5 game. Some of the questions were, "Who would be the top five historical people you would invite to a dinner party?" and "What five items would you want with you on a deserted island?".

Dani and I went to a Thai/Sushi restaurant and a movie on Monday while the other girls kayaked on the river.

~Gail, Pa Lee, Nikki, Grammy Dorothy, Alica, Dani, & me~

Dani

On our drive back to St. Mary, we found a roadside attraction with several old west buildings and dinosaurs.

We couldn't pass up the opportunity to take pictures with a bunch of cheesy dinosaur statues. :)

Montana thunderstorm

Swiftcurrent Trail

June 2012



All was well when Dani, Gail, Nikki, and I set out on the Swiftcurrent Trail.





~Nikki and Dani~



We climbed up the mountainside to a rock in order to get a better view. We spotted two grizzly bears about a mile away across the valley, but didn't worry about it because they were not very close. As we climbed down the rock, several hikers told us about a moose and her calf at the waterfall up the trail. We hurried along, excited to see the moose.

We hiked for 20 more minutes and reached the shore of the lake.

Upon arriving at the lake, we watched the moose and her calf for all of 10 seconds before we saw something approaching from the woods. The two grizzly bears we had watched through binoculars came out of nowhere and began running towards the moose. The initial attack took less than 20 seconds, but it felt like slow-motion. We stood there in shock until it registered that the bears were going after the moose calf.  I knew bears were fast, but I had no clue they could cover that much ground in such a short amount of time! The mama moose raced to get between the calf and the bear, but the second grizzly circled around and grabbed the calf by its neck. The mama moose looked completely surprised to see a second bear. She thrashed around in the water trying to reach her calf, but the first grizzly fought her off while the second bear began eating the calf.



The poor little calf was making heartwrenching noises as it tried to escape the bear's jaws and swim to its mama. We were crying and my hands were shaking. The raw power, force, and speed of the attack was shocking.



The mama moose was absolutely furious and valiantly fought the bears for 30 minutes in an attempt to reach her calf. The calf didn't last long. I saw a leg go flying when the bear was ripping the carcass apart on shore.



We watched the battle until the bears ran off into the woods with what was left of the calf and the mama moose wandered off looking distressed. I have always been cautious and aware of the dangers when hiking in the wilderness. However, witnessing the grizzly attack made me fully realize just how quickly things can turn dangerous. We had seen the bears and thought they were a safe distance away (at least a mile). They were 75 yards away from us taking out the calf before we could even register what was happening.