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 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 long-awaited 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 got up and began running, but dropped to the snow after nearby hikers screamed at him to stop, fearing the bear could charge again.
Once down, bystanders quickly rushed to his aid. One, a pediatric ER doctor, wrapped his arm in a makeshift tourniquet and stuffed the wound to staunch the bleeding while others called for help. Crago’s hiking companion helped keep him calm while they waited about an hour for a helicopter to arrive.
“I just kept putting snow on my face, staying awake,” Crago said. “I felt like if I passed out, I wouldn’t make it.”
He spent the next seven days at Logan Hospital staff in Kalispell, where he endured multiple surgeries to save his arm. Crago said he expects to receive at least one more skin graft, and possibly further surgeries to come, with no sense of how long it could take to regain use of his dominant hand or how much he might end up having to pay for lifesaving care.
“Writing is the hardest thing, just signing medical documents,” the hiker said. “The helicopter itself was $20,000 after insurance coverage, and I haven’t seen the bill of the surgery.”
Despite the pain and uncertainty, Crago said he was overwhelmed with gratitude for the strangers who rushed to his aid on the trail and those who continue to donate to his GoFundMeto help defray medical costs.
He said his terrifying encounter with California’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.
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