The government trapper who took the grizzly knew he had made Escudilla safe for cows. He did not know he had toppled the spire off an edifice–a building since the morning stars sang together.
Escudilla still hangs on the horizon, but when you see it you no longer think of bears. It’s only a mountain now.
-Aldo Leopold
I’m thankful for places like Glacier National Park, where the wildest animal in the lower 48 can still roam free. This photo was taken in Glacier, on the eastern side of the divide.
In one of Ernest Thompson Seton’s books he pleads with the powers-that-be to allow the grizzly to continue to exist. So far, his pleas have been heard.
They are amazing animals. When I first see the Beartooths coming from Billings, I always break out in goosebumps along my arms. It’s such a rare thing in the lower 48, and you know the land is truly wild if it can still support them.