Fauna of GNP

We walked right past this little family of Rocky Mountain Goats on the Highline Trail, near the visitor's center on Logan Pass. The horizon line in the distance is the Great Divide.

Rounding a corner, these Bighorn Sheep (a ewe and a lamb) peered out to see who was coming. (Click for large; it's kind of digustingly cute.)

At one point, the sheep and the goats kind of squared off, obviously wary of one another. There wasn't any ungulate-on-ungulate violence, but were certainly some cautious stares.

These are a couple alpine-style caterpillars we nearly stepped on. At this point they had about three weeks to turn into butterflies (or moths, probably) and get their business done before the snow flies.



The mottling of white feathers on this ptarmigan foreshadow Winter's approach. [edited 07.24.2019: according to those who would know, this is a Dusky Grouse, not any kind of ptarmigan.] We spotted him/her on the road as we admired Bird Woman Falls.

Our Rising Sun Campground neighbor's dog went nuts as this deer passed through one morning.

We didn't spot any of the park's famous bears this time (we'd seen several at Many Glacier with my family), but our friend Esther, who came with us, saw one on the National Bison Range as we drove up.

Next: Going-to-the-Sun