Our National Parks trip ended at Glacier National Park where we stayed at the Lake McDonald Lodge. Glacier is not named for its (diminishing) glaciers but for the process of glaciation that formed the park’s terrain.
There are two routes that run north/south on the eastern and western side of the park. Lake McDonald Lodge is reached by the western route. Going-to-the-Sun run cuts directly across the park from west to east through Logan Pass but, due to the high elevation and heavy snows, it is often closed until late June.
Since we took our trip early, the road was only open to Avalanche Creek. We did get to hike the Avalanche Creek trail up to Avalanche Lake and were rewarded with breathtaking views as well as siting both a black bear and grizzly bear!
Curmudgeon at Large 
Nice pics but I feel quite curmudgeonly about glaciers shrinking …
Me, too,
Excellent photos – I like to see bears without being near bears…
Too bad the Going-to-the Sun Road wasn’t open the whole way. It is one of the most breath-taking roads – though not advised for people who don’t like narrow roads with sharp drop-offs.
I, too, was disappointed that G-t-t-S road was not open. I did not mind watching the grizzly (at a safe distance) but the black bear was a little too close for comfort.
Wow, excellent photos of the bears! I hope you had a LONG telephoto lens. Black bears sometimes stroll through our yard so we see them at close range, but your photos is much closer to a grizzly than I’d ever want to be.
Although the pictures don’t show the relative size, the grizzly, despite not being fully grown, was bigger than the black bear. Fortunately, the grizzly was more interested in catching a fish than attacking the people taking pictures.
Here we have the curmudgeonized bear trudging through his habitat.
That bear was close enough that he almost ATE the curmudgeon!
i am laughing so hard, i nearly spit out my breakfast!
Glacier NP is a place we want to visit. A planned tour we had schedule for this month (from Seattle that included Glacier) was cancelled. 😦 … Thanks for the preview!