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Add up this spring's bear activity in the Bow Valley and Kananaskis Country and the list runs to six separate warnings and two full closures before July even started. That's before counting Yoho, Rogers Pass, or the video that pushed the whole subject onto everyone's feed.
The spring tally
May 4: a grizzly bluff-charged a hiker near Troll Falls in Kananaskis Country, coming within about four feet. Alberta Parks issued warnings across Bow Valley Wildland Provincial Park and the Evan-Thomas area, covering trails like Skogan Pass, Stoney Trail and Hay Meadow.
May 7: a second bluff-charge, this time on Mount Shark Road, closed the Tryst Lake parking area and put a warning on Mount Engadine Lodge and the surrounding road. Species wasn't specified for this one.
May 26: a warning went up for Boom Lake, Arnica Lake and Twin Lakes in Banff National Park, after a cinnamon-coloured black bear approached and followed a solo hiker.
June 6, 13 and 14: a black bear tore into an unoccupied tent at a Lake Minnewanka backcountry site, then damaged more tents at nearby campsites over the following week. By June 15, Parks Canada had escalated from a warning to a full closure covering the Lake Minnewanka Trail, Aylmer Pass Trail and six backcountry campgrounds.
June 24: the video. A grizzly circled a woman and her leashed dog near Mount Engadine Lodge for over a minute, reactivating the same warning area from May. Alberta Parks described the bear as showing persistent, dog-focused behaviour. Neither the woman nor the dog was hurt.
Further west, Yoho National Park has an active grizzly warning covering the Yoho Valley campgrounds, and Parks Canada's own weekly bear sighting log shows repeated grizzly activity around the Rogers Pass summit and Illecillewaet through April and into May.
Through all of it: zero reported bear-related injuries in Banff National Park or Kananaskis Country.
What the count actually shows
That's a policy shift, not an accident. Parks Canada and Alberta Parks now trigger a closure the moment a bear settles into an area, rather than waiting for something to go wrong there. It costs hikers access. This spring's zero-injury count suggests it's buying something back.
The Montana factor
Some of the unease traces to somewhere else entirely. On May 6, a hiker's body was found off the Mount Brown Trail in Glacier National Park, Montana - officials confirmed it as the park's first fatal bear attack since 1998.
Glacier sits roughly 700 kilometres south, under a different park service, in a different country. That distance doesn't stop the story from shaping how the next Kananaskis video gets read.
Before you head out
Check Parks Canada's bulletin page and Alberta Parks' advisories before a trip, or our own most recent bear post - the closures above move fast, and some have already lapsed or reactivated more than once. Carry bear spray somewhere you can actually reach it, keep dogs leashed, and give any bear the width of a football field if you get the choice.
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