Glacier: Hike to Marion Lake

The rain seems to have stopped for the moment (maybe even for the whole day, according to the reports) so we left our campsite this morning and headed over to meet up with Tiffani and Deke for a nice hike.

We started the trail from the trailhead here at the Illecillewaet Campground) and hiked up to Marion Lake. It's, well, uphill all the way…some pretty steep uphill (just rated "moderate" as hikes go, however). 

Pretty amazing to look down (part way to the lake) and see the road you just came from:

The lake at the top and the views were spectacular and totally worth the climb.

(That's 5,700 feet!)

On our way back down we met a German couple with great skin and cute striped shirts (probably in their 50s) on their way up. We told them about how much further it was to the lake and that it was beautiful and well worth the climb, and their first question was whether we'd seen any bears? We said, "Nope, no bears" and they were quite disappointed…said they really wanted to see a bear. It's funny…we really DIDN'T want to see a bear, which is why we were nice and loud the whole way. I've heard far too many stories of people I know or their friends coming WAY too close to bears (the kind of close that requires hospital stays and multiple surgeries)  to want to see one while I'm out hiking, totally vulnerable, wandering around the bear's home.

I heard there was a grizzly preserve somewhere not that far up the road though. I think they'd be better to go see the bears there.