We drove to another part of the park known as Two Medicine, and encountered another black bear on the way. This time we had the telephoto handy, but we had to take pictures through the windscreen.
He was just hanging out by the roadside, getting his fill of huckleberries. Black bears are actually very timid and naturally afraid of humans. Nonetheless, there are strict rules about interacting with them, and hefty fines are enforced for doing the wrong thing. They become a sure danger only once they become used to humans and especially if they begin to associate hikers or campsites with food. The expression is that "a fed bear is a dead bear", and it's true - the rangers will sometimes have to kill bears that start stalking people for their food or hang around where they shouldn't.
Two Medicine was pretty, but we didn't stay for long as there was a storm rolling in.
Instead we drove back to St Mary for lunch. The food is beginning to gross us out. Particularly out in the wilds of Montana, if you're not in the middle of a city it's so hard to find anything that isn't deep fried or a burger. The serving sizes are monstrous. We need to start ordering from the children's menu.
Another drive across the Going to the Sun Road was in order, as we had to get back to Whitefish to hop back on the train the next morning. Some low cloud in the area made for some awesome views. At one point we were at an observation deck, looking at the view in the photo below. Less than four minutes later the cloud had surrounded us and visibility was only a few meters.
We finished off our time in the park with one last small hike. This one wove through forest at a much lower elevation, so it was humid enough to be unpleasant. After a couple of miles, however, we were rewarded with a view of the gorgeous Avalanche Lake. It was much more impressive than expected, which made up for the fact our shirts felt as though we'd fallen in.
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