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Steven Gnam

At sunset, a cub steps onto its mother’s back for a better view: there’s a lone male grizzly traveling below them. Mothers must remain watchful of aggressive males. Cubs learn from their mothers to seek out army cutworm moths, a behavior that is passed down to future generations.

A light snow falls on a sleeping grizzly. The bears will scoop a depression into the rocks or dirt, a bear bed, and then curl up to sleep. They can be somewhat meticulous, removing all the sharp stones from their bed, leaving a smooth hollow.

A moth blends into rocks made of ancient ocean sediments. The moths prefer the loose mix of rocks called talus, with large interstitial spaces that they can move through and hide within.

An army cutworm moth (Euxoa auxiliaris) scurries past a wavy grizzly hair. Scat and hairs are found all over moth sites. The insects are the base of an enigmatic and little-studied food web, providing nourishment to ravens, bears, and other creatures in the alpine.

Bears seek shelter, like this cave, while in the alpine. The shelter seems to afford protection from storms, other bears, and helps keep them cool. Bears are culturally important to Native Americans. “The grizzly bear is involved in many of the Tribe’s creation stories and is respected and revered because of the grizzly’s involvement in the creation of our world and environments,” says Kari Kingery, a biologist with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes.

Often when thunderstorms hit the mountains, the bears stopped feeding and begin to play. These two grizzlies put on a long play fight, including lots of dramatic growls, swipes, and teeth baring. Competition for prime moth areas leads to occasional conflict.

A grizzly cub looks up while its sibling and mother drink from the meltwater at the base of a snow patch. Most of the bears at elevation are females and sub-adults, though some older males make the trek as well.

A cub playing with a chunk of ice. In the peak of summer, the sunny days are intense, especially if you live in a fur coat. The bears often seek cover in shaded areas and need to stay hydrated by drinking melting snow and ice.

Most people think of the grizzly bear as a mountain animal. However, in past eras the grizzly was sighted in the Great Plains, often following bison herds. But widespread hunting and trapping extirpated them from 98 percent of their range in the Lower 48. The remaining grizzlies found refuge in remote mountain ranges within the Rockies and North Cascades.

Furry mountaineers sans equipment, grizzly bears climb mountains to find army cutworm moths. They often move around a fair amount to find prime mothing sites and to dig up tubers. This bear has entered a subalpine meadow, likely seeking plants to eat.