Purple gold! These juicy purple-blue berries are a local treasure, both for humans and grizzly bears. They are the single most important food source for many of the region's bears, who pack on the calories to survive winter hibernation. Huckleberries only grow in the wild; they cannot be cultivated.

A favorite local topic most years in June is speculation about the quality of the pending huckleberry crop, which usually reveals itself in July. If the picking is slim, many good-hearted pickers sit out the year and leave them for the bears, who need them more than we do. If you do venture out, make noise so bears know you're close, and carry bear pepper spray in case you have a close encounter. Never try to push a bear out of a patch. That's neither good for you nor the bear.

In August 2010, the wild huckleberry crop is a tad later than normal but fairly heavy, although numerous reports from many secret picking places in BC and Montana suggest the bonanza is spotty. Huckleberries are less common on the east side of the continental divide, although that sweet purple has been known to touch pancakes in Two Medicine, Waterton and Many Glacier valleys.

If you can't ramble the mountains yourself, you'll find them in pies at Loula's in Whitefish, Two Medicine Grille in East Glacier, and the Park Cafe in St. Mary, as well as most of the park lodges in Glacier and Waterton parks. Or go to the annual Whitefish Huckleberry Days Festival August 13-15 2010.

The berries grow on low scrubby bushes with green or reddish-green small oval leaves. The berries hang singly under the leaves, to pick them you must lean down low, or find a good patch and sit in the middle of it.

On many hikes in Glacier Park you will find huckleberry bushes along the trail. Nothing tastes better than a handful of sweet, sun-warmed berries half-way in on a day-hike.

A thriving cottage industry creates every type of huckleberry product. Favorites are huckleberry jam and huckleberry ice cream, but huckleberry vinaigrette and huckleberry beer are worth sampling.
So important are their huckleberries to Montanans, the state legislature passed a law requiring manufacturers to document that their products contain only Montana Huckleberries.

Huckleberries can be found on hillsides throughout the Crown of the Continent. The Swan Valley, the North Fork, Big Mountain and BC's Elk Valley are popular picking areas.

Berries ripen in mid July at lower elevations, but on mountain slopes August and September are the best time to pick.

Huckleberries are the favorite food of grizzly bears, so keep one eye and one ear alert while you pick.