One thing the U.S. government does best: don't miss the national parks--and the bears.

• Author: Wiesner, Pat
• Position: [on] MANAGEMENT - Viewpoint essay

We have just completed three weeks of driving, camping and even renting a house for a week at Flathead Lake in Montana. In the process we traipsed all over three national parks: Teton, Yellowstone and Glacier.

The overwhelming, No. 1 impression is how well they are run, from the roads you drive, to the management of the wildlife to the friendliness and patience of the rangers.

I saw my first bear in the Teton park. Even though we have lived in Colorado for 40 years and have camped and hiked all over the mountains, I had never seen one where both of us--me and the bear--were out in the open. And there are lots of bears in Colorado. In the Teton park, it's the same. I would expect the No. 1 topic of conversation where visitors gathered was, ''Have you seen a bear yet?"

Here's how I finally got out in the open with a bear. My wife had just told me, "Now if we see one, stay in the car!" to which I had just agreed. That's when we drove upon a line of about 30 cars parked at the side of the road, and all the occupants were lined up along the edge of the road with cameras, from the little pocket types to ones with lenses 3 feet long, causing the would-be photographer to struggle with the weight.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

I parked and jumped out of the car with my camera while my wife was still in mid word, "Don't ..." She, too, then got out. There was a bear! It was 20 to 30 feet away, noisily, furiously eating a grove of huckleberries as though it was the last meal before hibernation. It was being watched and photographed by a crowd standing nervously on the road. A number of people said to me something like, "I know I shouldn't be here, but isn't this exciting?"

The bear never looked at any of the people or cars, but I'm sure it was quite aware, and I think the dynamic might have changed if anyone had stepped off the road in the direction of the bear. We eventually decided that we had pushed our luck far enough, although we never got closer to the bear than to our car.

A few days later we were the first car in a line that was delayed for a while by a...