<em>"For other states I have admiration, respect, recognition, even some affection, but with Montana it is love. ... It seems to me that Montana is a great splash of grandeur. The scale is huge but not overpowering. The land is rich with grass and color, and the mountains are the kind I would create if mountains were ever put on my agenda. ... Montana has a spell on me. ... Of all the states it is my favorite."</em></p><p>&#8212; John Steinbeck in <em>Travels With Charlie</em></p><p>GLACIER NATIONAL PARK, Mont. | A couple of black bear cubs crawled from the woods to the bicycle path as if they were kids trying to cross the street without their mother&#8217;s permission. They were sleek and adorable, and we might have taken a closer look had we not assumed mama bear was keeping an eye on them.</p><p>We were some 50 yards away from the cubs, and they didn&#8217;t notice my wife, Barb, reaching for her camera. But before she could focus, the cubs spotted a man walking from the opposite direction. They ducked back into the woods, and one bolted up a tree.</p><p>Through the trees, we could see the mama bear. She apparently could see us, too, and took a few steps in our direction. We were at a safe distance and knew that black bears seldom attack people, but we also knew it would be a mistake to run.</p><p>A park video had warned us against triggering a bear&#8217;s instinct to chase. So, as the video instructed, Barb, our son, Steve, and I announced our presence to make sure we weren&#8217;t startling the bears. We slowly retreated to show we were neither fearful nor threatening.</p><p>We waved our arms, said, "Whoa bear!" and backed away. The bears moved deeper into the woods and we continued along the path, which links the Apgar visitor center in Glacier National Park to the transit center and shuttle buses. We never dreamed we&#8217;d see bears in such a busy area.</p><p>"Bears usually don&#8217;t like being that close to people, but it&#8217;s a pretty good habitat," said Debby Mensch, a park ranger and coordinator of volunteers at the transit center. "These particular bears like the woods by the bike path. They eat mostly vegetation and Mom has probably been there a while. There&#8217;s a surprising amount of wildlife around Apgar. You see moose and elk here. I see some mountain lions&#8217; tracks, mainly in the winter."</p><p>Northwest Montana is deserving of Steinbeck&#8217;s affection. The northern Rockies are blanketed by pine forests and capped with snow. The lakes are vast and a brilliant blue, and the grasses are wild and colorful. Wildlife is almost everywhere.</p><p>Hearty outdoors types can still escape to the back country and see the Montana that captivated Steinbeck and was explored by Lewis and Clark in 1805 and 1806. Wilderness covers about 95 percent of Glacier National Park&#8217;s million acres. A neighboring town, Polebridge, has no power lines.</p><p>Yet, as the bears showed us, visitors needn&#8217;t go to the back country to experience the great outdoors of northwest Montana. All they need to do is hop on Glacier National Park&#8217;s free shuttle, which winds through valleys and over mountains before dropping off visitors at what seems like the top of the world. There, you can share mountain meadows with mountain goats, bighorn sheep, deer, moose and elk.</p><p><strong><span class="subhead">Going to the sun</span></strong></p><p>Such easy access to nature may dismay purists who won&#8217;t pitch their tents until they&#8217;ve driven to the end of the road, then hiked to the end of the trail. But Glacier National Park&#8217;s Going-to-the-Sun Road exposes the outdoors to many who might otherwise miss out -- families with small children, elderly people, folks with bum knees or anybody on a tight schedule.