June is a great month for weddings and beargrass, a tall and sensuous wildflower that pops out of clumps of wiry grass leaves. Sweeping across open hillsides and lodgepole pine, larch and fir forests, the range of the annual bloom is unpredictable, since each individual plant flowers only once every 5 - 7 years.

It's unusual for huge beargrass blooms to happen in consecutive years, but that's what has happened in 2008 and 2009 in the Crown of the Continent.

Beargrass is a member of the lily family. In late spring and early summer the plants send up tall flowering stalks, which can reach 5 feet. The large cream-colored blooms, 6 to 8 inches long, are actually made up of many tiny flowers. The leaves of the plant are long , thin and wiry, and grow in clumps which remain after the blooms die back .

Bears do not eat beargrass, but bighorn sheep and elk eat the flowers, and mountain goats eat the leaves. To walk amid these tall, sensuous flowers is unforgettable. Beargrass grows in broad swaths on open hillsides and in patches interpsersed in thick forest throughout Glacier Park and the Crown of the Continent. To see acres and acres of beargrass against the the snowy peaks of the majestic Swan Range is enough to take your breath away.

This is a seasonal spectacle that lasts for several weeks, depending on elevation. Blooming can begin in late May in some locations, and last through July in the high country. The blooms first begin to appear in early June in Glacier National Park.

There is easy access for beargrass viewing around the West Glacier Park Entrance, on Big Mountain outside of Whitefish, and near mile-marker 20 north of Seeley Lake on Highway 83.