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National Park visitors love bears. If you don’t believe me, just hit up Yellowstone National Park in May or June and see people lose their minds at the sight of a grizzly or black bear. Bear jams will snarl traffic for hours, and if cubs are around, you might witness people jumping out of their cars to try and snap a picture. Bears in National Parks make people indescribably giddy, and now that spring is here, the bear madness will start again. Luckily, we can nw watch bears from our screens, thanks to a webcam at Glacier National Park.
Glacier National Park has an amazing social media and website presence. Constantly updating information, sharing incredible pictures and so much more, the team at Glacier is the very best in the game. Their work highlighting the recreation opportunities in Glacier has helped propel the park into one of the fastest growing National Parks in terms of visitation over the past decade. Of course, Glacier is a true wonderland of wilderness and a place where stunning views of mountains and lakes is unrivaled in the contiguous United States, so the landscape sells itself.
With moose and mountain goats, bighorn sheep and bears commonly seen, the park is like a hybrid between Yellowstone and the North Cascades. The possibilities for adventure are endless at Glacier, and their webcams help whet your wanderlust spirit. Many of the park’s webcams show off majestic views, but the staff does move a few around from time to time, showing some pretty rad stuff. In the spring of 2018, the crew at Glacier turned a webcam toward a well known bear den.
According to the park:
“In Spring black bears are occasionally seen in this tree. This year a black bear was first observed on the 23rd of March, and has been seen most evenings since. Look at the large hole in the trunk and you might see a bear poking its head out. If you are lucky you might see it climbing out on the branches or up and down the trunk. The telephoto lens on this camera has a 30X optical zoom. The distance from the camera to the tree (on Google Maps) is 357 ft. Always use a telephoto lens to photograph wildlife and never approach closer than 100 yards to a bear.”
The webcam page at Glacier shows two different images of the tree, a wide view and a closeup. Either works well, so find the one that is your preference and give it a watch for awhile. What the staff at The Outdoor Society typically does is have the webcam as a pop up and keep it in the corner of the screen.
Webcams like this are why we love the employees at our National Parks. Sharing cool things like this with the public not only gives us something awesome to watch during the day, but it also helps inspire trips and educate visitors. Classrooms around the country will be streaming this webcam, inspiring the younger generations to care about wildlife, public lands and the environment. Like the natural wonders at Glacier, the NPS webcams are spectacular and help me daydream of future adventures. This bear cam got me looking at the other webcams again and I am feeling myself itching for another trip to the Backbone of the World.
Seriously, if you haven’t been to Glacier yet, go now. Take in a sunset at Bowman Lake, hike to the Ptarmigan Tunnel and Avalanche Lake and let me know if the wilderness of Glacier changed your life. Until then, check out the webcams and see if you are lucky enough to spot the black bear at the den.
