Glacier National Park-West Side

We entered Glacier National Park about noon on Monday, August 8, through the west entrance. We had reserved a place at Fish Creek campground, so there was no panic over finding a place at the peak of the tourist season. Bob Filler warned us about that. Fish Creek is the only campground that takes reservations on the west side and there are a few other campgrounds that are first come, first served. One of them, Apgar, is a nicer campground and had a number of available sites the last two days.
The gem at Glacier is the Going-to-the-Sun-Road. Our Fodor's Guide book says" The Going-to-the-Sun-Road is arguably the most beautiful drive in the country". And they get no argument from us. The road is about 32 miles in length, and connects Lake McDonald in the west and Saint Mary Lake in the east. The high point on the road is at Logan Pass, at 6,600 feet. The road is heavily traveled, so we took off early on our first day to explore this high country. There is construction on the upper portions of the road, so we encountered numerous delays. The first photo was taken at one of these stops. Logan Pass is the low point, on the left side of the photo. The road traverses the left side of the mountain and at places has been blasted out of rock and is very steep.
The mountain in the middle of the first photo is shown from Logan Pass visitor center, in Photo 2. There were hundreds of people out on the snow, barely visible in the photo.
On the second day here, we took a hike to Avalanche Lake. The beautiful stream that empties the lake to McDonald lake is shown in photo 3.
Glacier NP has a shuttle system taking people to all the important sites. It's a good way to get around since there are not enough parking spaces. The historic red "jammer" buses offer an alternative means of transportation. Advanced reservations are advised.
We still have our bear spray given to us by Benn Martin, but haven't had to use it, yet. Perhaps we should test it since it hasn't been tested since 2006. There has been a black bear seen in our CG but no grizzlies yet. Glacier NP has the largest grizzly population in the lower 48 states. A hiker was attacked here in the park a few days before we arrived.
Now, let's see, curl up and play dead with a grizzly and stand tall and be aggressive with a mountain lion and black bear. Hope I can keep that straight.