Grinnell Lake, Glacier National Park

One goal for my Glacier National Park photo trip was to shoot a brilliant turquoise glacier lake. Mid-day sunlight on Grinnell Lake nicely met that goal.
 
This photo was taken on the Grinnell Glacier Overlook Trail. Layers of color from rock, flora, water and shadow form the basis for this simple composition.
 
Grinnell Glacier Trail is typically rated moderate to difficult. Being used to off-trail hiking in Pennsylvania's (much shorter) mountains, I find most national park trails to be very easy to hike. The difficulty comes in the distance and overall elevation change.
 
Blisters can be the most difficult part of the trip (try duct tape).
 
Bears can also add to the difficulty. Plan on having bear spray immediately accessible when hiking in Glacier National Park. We met a park ranger on this trail and asked him if he ever used his spray.
 
His reply was something like "I've been a ranger here for 11 years and never used my bear spray until 3 months ago." He had come upon a mother grizzly with her two cubs on the same trail near where we were hiking at that moment. The grizzly huffed and charged full speed down the mountain toward him.
 
The ranger immediately unholstered and released his spray. The charging bear was at about 10' when hit with the spray. It abruptly turned and ran away. The $50.00 spray is priceless if needed.
 
We did encounter a mother grizzly and two cubs on this trail, but were not approached by them.