The largest living things are mountain goats and bighorn sheep, while marmots and pikas scurry about on the rocky slopes. These two communities are home to many of the parks' midsize animals, such as lynx and deer. You can see the spruce-fir and Douglas fir communities on the eastern side of Glacier and Waterton and close to the mountains on the western sides of the parks. In this mountainous region, it's easy to overlook the bunchgrass area, where prairie conditions rule. The eastern sides of the parks are covered with aspen and cottonwood stands where deer, elk, and coyotes make their homes.
Bears sometimes forage here for winter-killed moose, glacier lily bulbs, and ripe huckleberries.
This community is on the western side of the parks, where giant forest fires reshaped the landscape. Watch for bright gold western larches in the fall. They are the only conifers that lose their needles, then regrow them in spring. After recent fires, the ground is carpeted with bright pink fireweed in summer. The community is also home to elk herds.