A San Diego man said he feels lucky to be alive and recovering at home this week after surviving a grizzly bear attack at Glacier National Park on May 28.
“I’m honestly grateful I still have an arm,” said Daniel Crago, 32, in an interview Sunday with the Los Angeles Times. “It’s pretty painful, but I’m making progress day by day.”
The attack unfolded at the end of the last hike on the last day of a trip to the popular Montana park, which sees more than 3 million visitors annually.
Crago, a lifelong outdoor enthusiast who spent his childhood camping in Yosemite and Sequoia, had just taken a few snapshots from the end of the Grinnell Glacier trail and was headed back to meet his travel companion about 100 yards away when he spotted a grizzly cub just off to his left.
Like most Golden State hikers, Crago had long ago learned what to do when confronted with a bear. He stayed calm and still, quickly scanning his surroundings for other grizzlies.
What he saw next filled him with terror.
“There was a larger grizzly maybe 10 feet above me,” Crago said. “They tell you to alert the bear to make sure you don’t frighten it. I called ‘Hey bear! Hey bear!’ “And as it looked up, it charged at me.”
With no time to grab his bear spray, Crago said he threw up his right arm to try to shield himself instead. The bear bit through flesh and bone, dragging him for about 20 feet before dropping him and running away.
“I looked down at my arm and my hand was just kind of dangling,” Crago said. “It was a full break of both forearm bones, an open wound, blood kind of pouring out.”
He said his terrifying encounter with Montana’s most iconic apex predator won’t dim his love of nature.
“It’s something that’s always been a part of who I am,” he said.