At the beginning and end of each day in Glacier National Park, we would return to a location where grizzly bear are often spotted. This particular day, we came up on a long line of cars which -in national park terms - is a clear sign that someone has located some animal.

In this case, park rangers had formed a road block to prevent anyone from getting to within 200 yards of this grizzly sow and her cub as they made their way over the rocks, looking for roots and grubs.

One of the holy grails of wildlife photography, the sighting of a grizzly bear with cub(s) is without compare. Unfortunately, it also represents one of the single most dangerous occurrences in nature. I would have given anything to have been a hundred yards closer or to have had a lens twice the focal length, but this was a bucket list sighting for my wife and me.

Canon EOS 10D, Tamron 200-400mm f/4.5-5.6 Aspherical @400mm (effective focal length = 560mm on APS-C sensor), 1/100 sec @f/5.6, ISO equiv 200, Gitzo G1349 Mountaineer Carbon Fiber Tripod, Gitzo 1576M Ball Head