Glacier National Park through Ken Burns’ lens

It’s a perfect picture of Grinnell Lake, at least according to consummate documentarian Ken Burns.

“Now if you put these four trees in the foreground, with the lake behind,” he tells the reporter, “I think you can get the depth of field to work for you in a sort of Impressionistic way.”  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

Though Burns brought his family to Glacier National Park for a quasi-summer vacation, seeing him relax and play is a rare sight. Here, he checks on his iPhone.  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

Glacier National Park offers lake cruises, mountain vistas and midsummer snowfields. Burns’ latest documentary fits in with all his other series, which he says, are essentially about how American geography connects with the American character.  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

Burns and cinematographer Buddy Squires find the best shot of Swiftcurrent Lake.  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

Montana‘s wilderness along the Canadian border was designated as a national park in 1910. In his documentary, Ken Burns sets out to explore such history and the people that pushed for the national parks system.

“In a culture so dedicated to the almighty dollar, so dedicated to a kind of extractive and acquisitive mentality. It’s phenomenal. So how did this happen? Who were these people?” he asks.  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

Motorcycle campers pause to take in the scenery.

One of the passages in Glacier National Park is Going-to-the-Sun Road, an epic 53-mile highway that crosses the continental divide and took 11 years to build.  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

Of the national parks system, Burns says: “For the first time in human history, land was set aside not for the pleasure of kings and noblemen and the very, very rich, but for everybody, for all time.”

At Lake St. Mary, pictured, visitors admire Montana‘s tranquil wilderness.  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)