Attack of the Bear Woman

Laura wants to see a bear. It's her default setting. Any time, any place, but especially so in National Parks which we may or may not have visited for this exact purpose. Most visitors don't ever see one. We didn't in the Great Smoky Mountains, or in the Rockies. But we got very lucky in Yellowstone, in every sense, when we saw a grizzly at great distance and came rather too close to a black bear with her cubs.

So, Laura has seen bears. Box ticked.

And now we are in Mt Rainier, with Glacier and Yellowstone on the itinerary. All home to bears. The box can and will be ticked again, and again. Laura wants to see a bear.

On the first of two full days in Mt Rainier NP so far we had not seen a bear. But boy were we about to hear about them.

We had driven across to the eastern side of the park to a place called Sunrise. The cloud above Paradise had thickened and descended overnight, obliterating the mountain peak and pressing through the trees around the inn. Dramatic and beautiful, but not excellent for walking; fifty miles away, in Sunrise, fifty miles away, things were supposed to be different.

Getting there meant a long slow drive back down all the switchbacks, this time with minimal visibility. The cloud filled everything, masking the forest and valleys below as well as the peaks above so that all was white apart from us and the next ten metres of road. Slowly we crept under the bottom edge of the cloud so that it seemed to hover just above us. Then, about halfway through the hour and a half journey, we turned a long steep corner and suddenly, like the parting of a curtain, the road ahead was completely clear, the sky was blue and the sun shone.

Sunrise is higher than Paradise, 6400 feet above sea level, and the highest point of Mt Rainier that can be reached by car. We walked from there up a steep trail, and eventually, with some huffing and puffing, made it to the top of Second Burroughs Mountain, another 1000 feet higher again.

Here we were well above the treeline, on a broad flat expanse of tundra, the wind in our faces. Right in front of us loomed the top of Mount Rainier itself, huger and nearer than ever, the ice shining white in the sunshine, fading to blue in the shadows. We stood and gawped. And that was when the bear woman appeared.

So often on this trip we've been reminded of the wonderful kindness and friendliness of total strangers. It happens in the UK, but not like this. People we've chanced upon have given us useful information, or just shot the breeze when they didn't have to. Occasionally there were astonishing acts of generosity. We weren't surprised to find ourselves in a rolling conversation with all of the other people that were on Burroughs Mountain, either stopping for a rest like us, or passing through.

The bear woman was part of a lovely family from Minneapolis. They stopped and we discussed their trip and ours, and others on the mountain chipped in too. She was slightly ursine herself with glossy dark pelt hair and pointed and painted bright red nails. Talk quickly turned to bears, because, well, all the seeing of bears had been done apparently. By her.

She had seen a mother and two cubs yesterday down by the pond which we had passed on our way up the mountain. She had seen the same ones, or possibly different ones, further off before that. Whenever she went to Glacier she saw grizzlies. Back home, she had a brown bear which came into her yard.

All we could do was admire her luck and her enthusiasm and go on our way, hoping that we might see one ourselves. The track led down the other side of the ridge, through more forests and meadows and marmots and chipmunks. It was beautiful. Whisps of cloud tangled themselves across the mountain above us. Lakes shone bright blue amongst the trees.

We saw no bears.


Paradise, WA, to Sunrise, WA and back.

Miles: 102
States: 1

Licene Plates: 18

Total: 43

Breakfast: Paradise Inn, Paradise, WA
Lunch: Sunrise, WA
Dinner: Paradise Inn, Paradise, WA

Favourite Place Name: Ohanapecosh (for best results imagine it being said by a parrot doing a Jimmy Stewart impression)