Running Eagle Falls

— Located in Glacier National Park in the Two Medicine Lake area, Running Eagle Falls can be reached via a handicap-accessible nature trail of about 0.6 miles roundtrip. Beyond that point, there is a bridge to lead visitors across the creek and closer to the falls. The falls are also known as Trick Falls because, in fact, there are two of them. If you look at about 1/3 from the bottom, you should be able to see a smaller falls on the right merging with the taller falls. Since there was plenty of water here, the second fall is not quite obvious. The towering mountain in the background is Rising Wolf Mountain (9,514 ft / 2,900 m).

This past May 4, a park visitor was a fatality in this location, after he jumped off the top of the waterfall. Falls and drownings are the top causes of death in the park. It is interesting to note that grizzly bear attacks in Glacier National Park are rare. According to the Flathead Beacon website, there have only been 10 fatal grizzly attacks since Glacier NP opened in 1910. By contrast, the Yellowstone area has had “six fatal grizzly bear attacks since 2010,” according to the same source. The same year I took this photo, we had a grizzly bear encounter coming back from Grinnell Lake, near Lake Josephine. She came within 10-12 feet from us, but all she was concerned with was eating her berries. She never once looked up to look at us.