Peter Lougheed Visitor Park -- June 29, 2008

... our next stop on our drive was a quick interpretive loop beside the Peter Lougheed Provincial Park Visitor Centre. Unfortunately, when we arrived the trail and most of the area around it had been blocked off due to bears in the area.

Bear warnings aren't terribly unusual in this part of the world, especially in the spring. The big beasts are waking up and they're usually quite grumpy and hungry. It's in our best interests to stay out of their way.

What was surprising though, was the extent of the closures. Many of these trails directly surround the Visitor Centre, an area that has heavy vehicular traffic, not to mention a large parking lot that serves as a trailhead for multiple trails. Not the area you'd expect bears to be spending much time in.

The Visitor Centre itself was a border for some of the closures. The picturesque meadow directly behind the Centre was closed due to bear activity. We could go no further than the gate connecting the front deck of the Centre to the back deck.

Hard to believe such an area had to be closed, but there it was:



Yeah, if I were a bear, I'd wanna live there too...