California Hiker Mauled by Grizzly on Glacier's Grinnell Trail Says He's 'Extremely Lucky' to Be Alive

A California hiker who was attacked and dragged by a grizzly bear on a busy trail in Glacier National Park says he feels "extremely lucky" to have survived an encounter that lasted only seconds but shattered his arm and required three surgeries.

Daniel Crago, 32, was hiking the popular Grinnell Glacier Trail in the Montana park on May 28 when he came face to face with the animal. He had temporarily separated from a friend, and the roar of nearby rushing water masked his approach, leaving neither him nor the bear time to react. "This bear, as soon as we looked at each other, it charged towards me," Crago recalled.

The attack was over in less than 10 seconds. The grizzly bit down on his right forearm and dragged him roughly 20 feet before breaking off and fleeing. Crago was left with an open fracture of both bones in his forearm — injuries so severe that doctors said he would need a skin graft on top of the operations already performed.

He credits fellow hikers with saving his life. A doctor who happened to be hiking nearby applied a tourniquet to slow the bleeding while another member of the group called for help, and Crago was airlifted to a hospital. Park rangers say staying with a group, making noise on the trail and carrying bear spray remain the best defenses in grizzly country, especially near loud streams where bears cannot hear people coming. The Grinnell Glacier Trail, which climbs past turquoise alpine lakes to a shrinking glacier, is among the most heavily trafficked routes in the park and draws thousands of hikers each summer.

The mauling capped a tense stretch for Glacier, which sits in the heart of one of the largest grizzly populations in the lower 48 states. Park officials said earlier this month that they had euthanized a grizzly following a spate of conflicts, part of a difficult early season for human-bear encounters. Wildlife managers urged the surge of summer visitors to treat every hike as bear country and to give the animals a wide berth — advice Crago, recovering from his wounds, now echoes for anyone heading into the backcountry.

Grizzlies remain protected as a threatened species in the lower 48 states, where their numbers have rebounded in and around Glacier and Yellowstone after being hunted to near-elimination across most of their former range. That recovery has brought more frequent encounters as hikers and bears increasingly share the same trails, and rangers stress that most maulings, like Crago's, are defensive reactions by a startled animal rather than predatory attacks.