Glacier Park's: Night of the Grizzlies | PBS Documentary ⁷²⁰ᵖ

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The helicopter pilot John Westover is my grandfather 😊

WOW!!! iI came accross this documentary by accident and was totally captivated. Being from Africa where we do not know bears at all, I did not realise what dangerous but magnificent animals they are. A very sad tale, but that just shows us again that wild animals are just that - wild - and should always be respected

That helicopter pilot should have gotten some kind of medal. He was incredibly brave risking his life to save them.

That moment he said he held her hand and realized how important human touch is… so profound. So true. We are all human. The fact there was a tracker, a doctor, a surgeon and a preacher there isn’t lost on me.

My brother and I spent every summer from 1973 through 1976 climbing mountains in the American and Canadian Rockies. We spent many nights in the Glacier Backcountry and had one experience with a Grizzly. The Male bear followed us around Gunsite Lake Area while we fished and camped. All of our food scraps consisted of the fish entrails left over from our almost daily fish catch. We would always pack those scraps at least 5 miles from our different bivwak areas. The bear would frequently visit our camping area and the nitetime visits would raise the hair on your neck. As the bear seemed to grow bolder we decided to vacate this area. A book purchased at the park in 1973, explaining these attacks, was always in my Kelty backpack. I still have that book and to this day continue to pray for these young lost souls!

I remember this so well! I was 15 years old and living in Great Falls, Montana with my family when this happened. My aunt, uncle and cousin came to visit from California and we were all vacationing together in Glacier Park the day after. We camped at Apgar campground and my relatives stayed at Lake MacDonald Lodge. As soon as we set up our camp, we joined them at the Lodge and that’s when we heard about it. The employees at the Lodge were having a memorial for the girls and new signs were posted everywhere about the grizzlies. We’d camped every summer at the Park since I was 11 years old. We’d visited the park at that time while still living in Oklahoma and my Dad fell in love with Montana, so we moved. My aunt was complaining about all of the smoke and that she thought she wasn’t going to see any “smog” since leaving California! I explained that it was a very dry year and that lightning started fires in the higher elevations and that was thought to have contributed to the bears being driven into areas where more people were. I had never seen fires in Glacier Park before, except for campfires. But the smoke wasn’t the heaviest thing hanging over the park. The concern and sadness of the employees was palpable everywhere. The stories I heard were almost identical to this video. Then, later, the newspapers reported more. There was also a young man from Columbia Falls who was mauled by a grizzly who I thought was one of the 2 party’s mentioned here. But after 54 years, my memory may have merged the stories together. He was bitten in the buttock and part of his scalp was torn off but he survived. I think it happened the same summer in the western part of the park but I can’t be sure. I remember hearing that one of the party’s had a small dog with them and left their food lying around and the other one hung their food from a tree, as they were supposed to. Both groups were “off trail” instead of camping in the campgrounds. I’d heard about the unzipped sleeping bag and one of the girls being pulled from her sleeping bag by the arm and the horrible comments she made before she died, as mentioned here. Their stories have never left me. Whenever I’ve camped, I’ve been reminded to keep my camp clean of any food, burn my trash, store my food in the car under blankets and not have any food packaging or grocery bags visible in it. Bears have learned what food is stored in & can peel a car open like a tin can if they see a brown grocery bag! After moving to California and camping in Yosemite and Sequoia, the bears are “well educated” as to human food storage! The main thing to remember is that you want it as far away from your tent and hidden in the car as possible. A car can be replaced! I never camp under the stars or off trail. I stay in campgrounds near people. But once when I was in Sequoia, I stayed in a housekeeping cabin. It had a potbellied stove on the patio for cooking your food. I still kept my site clean and stored my food in the car. But the people in the cabin next to me left a skillet with bacon fat on their potbelly stove overnight. The racket that bear made, trashing their patio just inches from our doors woke everyone! Everyone started making so much noise, we finally scared it off! There were no cell phones back then & no phones in the cabins to call for help! We not only need to be aware for our own safety but also for others. As nice as our National Parks are, they’re still inhabited by wild animals!

I was shocked at how fast grizzlys run for such big lumbering animals. I saw one running on video after a van . You'd never out run one .

I was camping that night in Apgar Campground, Glacier National Park in 1967. I remember how different the air felt to me, and the lighting storm. I saw the helicopters.

Imagine being one of the first female Park Rangers ever, and then this happens on your first day escorting a group of tourists. And you’re only there because the male rangers gave you the “easy” job.

I've seen other documentaries on this bizarre and tragic occurance, and I've read the book, as well. Imo, this is by far the best treatment of that terrifying night and its ramifications for bear management in our wild lands. I worked as a seasonal ranger for four summer at Yellowstone and saw many grizzlies during that time. I'll never forget my first sighting of this magnificent and terrifying creature -- It was a life-changing experience and a reminder that we humans are not as all-powerful as we often pretend to be.

This is definitely one of those where you're half way through it asking yourself "why the hell am I watching this" but can't/don't seem to wanna go away from it.

this reminds me of a discussion with a man in South Africa about the stupidity of people there too - taking pictures of wildlife, he told me of a Korean woman taking a flash picture of her friend of a massive bull elephant ( who was on the other side of a fence ) - the light spooked him and he charged right through the fence and killed them both.....also another guy who stopped for a smoke and got out of his vehicle in  a wildlife park - he walks to a rock - and disappears seconds later by a lion who was there - you can't fix stupid

Camping in South Lake Tahoe, I had mistakenly left an empty cup (that had had Gatorade in it) in my boot right outside my tent when I crawled into my sleeping bag. In the middle of the night I woke up to a huge black bear sniffing and licking my face through the tent. 😳 My eyes just opened wide and I held my breath, I looked over and my friend laying next to me was awake and her eyes were as big as saucers too. We made no sound. I knew instantly it was a bear. The bear snorted around me for a minute and proceeded to break into our camp and eat everything we had. We watched through a hole in the zipper. It was terrifying but since there was food around, the bear didn’t care about us. I was amazed to watch him open car door, open ice chests and use his claws tp zip open a pound block of cheese and just devour it. They are amazingly dexterous. After it ate, it moved on. Amazing experience but totally my fault. Also, Ca black bears climb trees and can easily outrun a human. I don’t know what else I could have done if it decided to eat me?

I live in Montana. Bears here are no joke. Self protection and risk factor do come into play when camping.

We get mesmerized with how beautiful and glorious the wilderness is. Yet we forget how dangerous and cruel it becomes.

America and Canada are very beautiful countries. I wanna visit them some day. Be proud of ur nature. Bears are awesome.

This was such a well done documentary and treated those directly involved with great respect. To hear the survivors and officials tell the story in their own words was chilling.

This sounds like an 80s horror movie, I can only imagine what everyone involved had gone through that night.. My sincere prayers to the victims and their families.

Pro-tip: Do not read this book on the way to visit Glacier National Park when you’re going to be hiking solo. Was not my smartest idea lol