BEAR AWARE IN MONTANA A TRAVELER’S FIRST TIME IN GRIZZLY COUNTRY

My wife had always talked about taking a trip to Glacier National Park, but I never thought much of it.

In fact, I thought she was talking about Alaska. Having grown up in a small, East Tennessee town, I couldn’t imagine glaciers south of the Canadian border. But when she showed me pictures of the park, the allure was immediate.

There was something about how the mountains sprang forth from the placid lakeshores that made me feel compelled to go. I wanted to be in the middle of it all—to experience it and witness the place. Maybe it was a feeling of wanderlust, or perhaps it was something more.

Convinced, I began planning a road trip with Glacier National Park as the center point. It was August 2018. The plan was to travel from Tennessee to Montana,