Siyeh Pass Mountain Goat Survey 2025

A little out and back hike up to just below Siyeh Pass to do a Mountain Goat and Bighorn Sheep survey as part of Glacier National Park’s citizen science program was filled with wildflowers, birds, and a variety of megafauna including mountain goats, mule deer, and grizzlies.

A rainy drive up and over Going-to-the-Sun Road stayed true to the forecast of morning showers. We were hoping that the second part of the forecast, that they’d be clearing up, also held true. After parking at the Sunrift Gorge parking area, we stepped out under gloomy skies and hit the trail.

Obvious, fresh, grizzly bear diggings were all around the trail as we ascended through the dry, burn area. This area receives a lot of sun, so the wildflowers initially were a bit on the way out. This also made sense that there would be bear diggings as they like to eat Glacier Lily bulbs, but after they’ve flowered.

As we ascended up alongside Baring Creek, we entered more and more wildflowers and always love the stunning cascades of the creek as it pools and falls over red rocks on its way down to St. Mary Lake. Just past a little canyon area, we entered into more of the basin where views were opening up more and more. Beargrass blossoms were stunning as it appears that we’re having quite the bloom year and the conditions have been right.

It was also at this time that the rain began to pick up. We put on some rain gear and continued our ascent, with some blue skies partly visible to the west. The rain grew heavier, then subsided and we let our gear dry in the cool breeze as we continued on. We passed two very large Mule Deer bucks that were busy digesting food. We scanned with our binoculars and found two groups of goats as well!

Since we were up doing a survey, we made notes and hoped that we’d see them while we were actually doing the survey. (Note: the survey has a protocol and the protocol has you going to a specific location and surveying for a specific amount of time. If you see Mountain Goats or Bighorn Sheep during the survey, you make notes about them in the survey app. If you see them outside of the survey, you also make notes about them, but ideally, you’ll see them when you’re surveying!)

As the trail worked its way up the valley through sections of open meadows and short, subalpine fir, we crossed over a couple of lingering snowfields. The trail then began switchbacking up the headwall, through cliff bands. As we climbed higher, it was fun to see and hear different birds and wildflowers that each find their niche at different elevations. We eventually reached our survey spot which was below Siyeh Pass. Instead of doing the traditional loop from Siyeh Bend and out by Sunrift Gorge, we decided to just do an out and back as logistics (without the park shuttle running) and large, steep snowfields higher up just made it more of a pain to do so.

Thankfully, we were able to see all of the Mountain Goats during our survey that we’d seen on our hike up. While scanning for Mountain Goats and Bighorn Sheep, we also spied a pair of Grizzlies foraging a few hundred yards up from the trail that we’d hiked up. We showed them in the scope to a few other travelers on the trail before we finished the survey, packed up and headed back down.

We knew approximately on the trail where the bears would be closest and as we approached that area, we kept vigilant. Thankfully, it was in the open terrain so seeing them should be easier. A solo hiker who was ahead of us waived his arms while looking back at us to let us know that he’d seen them, then we saw them on the ridge above him. Honestly, he was too close and should have worked his way back to us. The bear loped a bit towards him and we hollered at the hiker to get closer to us. It appeared that our voices halted the bear who went back to foraging.

The other hiker eventually came back to us and we mentioned that he was probably too close to the bears and he said, “bears? I only saw one”. Anyway, we waited until it was safe to pass below them and did so as a group of three, letting the bears know where we were.

Overall, it was super fun seeing not only the bears, but also the goats, the wildflowers, the views, and all of the other little things that make for an enriching day in nature.