behind, persevered and rebuilt. . and it truly is a day of remembrance across the gulf coast and throughout the country. it was 5 years ago at 6:10 a.m. local time that hurricane katrina came ashore. by 10:00 a.m. the levees gave way in new orleans, and the waters began to flood the city. more than 182,000 homes were destroyed. more than 1 million people displaced, and more than 1,800 people were killed by the waters and of course their aftermath. >> and those images, they're really seared into our national collect iive consciousness, people suffering in the streets. residents desperate for rescue. people jamming dirty hospitals and overcrowded shelters. today we are going to check back with some of those people who came through it all on the other side. an entire region still recovering but just how much they have rebuilt is really astounding. >> it is astounding indeed, and as always in new orleans even on a somber day like this, there will be celebrations of life with music and parades. our bob woodruff is there. and we're going to check in with him coming up in the show, but we'll begin with a hurricane that's causing damage today though on a much smaller scale. hurricane danielle moved past bermuda late saturday sparing a direct hit, but the storm is stirring up dangerous rip currents from florida to new england, and more than 100 people had to be rescued. mike mariusz is on the beach in rockaway new york where one man had drowned. good morning, mike. >> reporter: bianna, good morning to you. a 50-year-old man did die here at rockaway beach here in queens, new york. now, officials have not said exactly what caused his drowning, but we do know that riptide warnings were reported up and down the east coast including here. dozens of rescues happening all in towns along the east coast, and in one town where over 60 rescues happened in florida, we talked to one of the rescuers. >> today we had extremely rough waters, heavy surf and rip currents off the coast today. we had over 65 rescues, 50 of which were in cocoa beach area alone. we did have one drowning today as a result of swimmers not being in an area of a lifeguard. >> reporter: further up the east coast in new jersey, there were more than 50 rescues there. we heard from one of the swimmers that were actually caught in one of these rip currents. >> the current is very strong, riptides pulling you all the way across nearly to the middle of the next beach. >> reporter: now, these rip currents are expected to be even stronger today as danielle continues to churn up the waters in the atlantic. now, lifeguards say to be especially careful. they say if you swim in water that is above waist high, you are at risk, and they say if you are caught in one of these rip currents or riptides, they suggest that you swim parallel to the beach. they say if you actually try to swim toward the beach, which is what a lot of people inherently do, they say you will tire yourself out and put yourself at risk of drowning. bianna? >> all right, mike, thank you. and along with hurricane danielle there are two other storm systems brewing in the atlantic. and one of them may head to the u.s. this week. marysol is off this morning so chikage windler from kstp in minneapolis is here with the details. good morning again, chikage. >> good morning. those other two systems tropical storm earl and a tropical wave that could soon be upgraded to fiona. earl is of the most concern right now. it ises a tropical storm, maximum sustained winds about 65 miles per hour but likely to strengthen into a category 1 hurricane as early as later today. already we have tropical storm and hurricane warnings that have been posted for areas of the northeast caribbean islands. hurricane watches for the u.s. virgin islands, as well as puerto rico. here's the track from the national hurricane center. one thing that concerns me is the storm is likely to turn into a category 3 major hurricane later in the week, and each progressive path of the storm has been pushing this a little bit farther west, a little bit closer to the u.s. mainland. right now here's a look at some of the possible places that earl could eventually end up. and you can see one path takes it extremely close to cape hatteras and the cape fear coast, something that we'll have to keep an eye on, especially from the north carolina area all the way up towards cape cod, at least rip currents if not even more in the days to come. ron? >> okay, thanks, chikage. and five years ago we were reporting on another hurricane, of course, one that the gulf coast is still feeling the impact of. this is, of course, the fifth anniversary of katrina, hurricane katrina, and in new orleans there will be memorials, music, even a presidential speech, and as he was five years ago, bob woodruff is there. good morning, bob. >> reporter: good morning, ron. the president will be arriving here just in a few hours early this afternoon. you can see it is just raining now. it's been raining nonstop throughout this weekend. so people have been having a lot of events not stre outside but inside because what the people want to say is a good-bye to katrina. ♪ as the saints go marching in >> reporter: in st. bernard's parish outside the city residents gathered to say good-bye to hurricane katrina and good riddance to the grief left behind. >> i've put it to bed, you know, and i'm ready to move on. >> reporter: nearly everyone here felt the sting of katrina, so they staged a mock funeral to help this community finally let go. >> i must say that today was the first time when the casket was closed that there was an applause. >> reporter: sharon williams in new orleans is ready to move on too. >> right now we're in front of my home. >> reporter: she moved into her new home this weekend. >> this is the living room. >> reporter: exactly half a decade after she fled the city. ♪ out on caffen street in new orleans, there was a block party, the first one in five years. >> the party goes on. rain or shine, we party. >> the block was a square that i photographed. >> reporter: photographer dave anderson has spent years chronicling the recovery on this street, the images capturing the determination, the sense of community that has led to its revival. neighbor stacy rockwall and augustine greenwood returned to new orleans two years after the storm and leaned on each other for support. >> i wouldn't have been here without augustine. i wouldn't have been here by myself. >> reporter: president obama's speech will be at xavier university here in new orleans, and, of course, he'll be talking not only about the sacrifice of the people here, but, of course, their resilience, ron? >> okay, thanks very much, bob reporting from new orleans. and as mayor of new orleans ray nagin was in the eye of the storm literally and in the public eye when his city was washed away and has been built up building itself back up. he left office just this past may, and he joins us now this morning. good morning. welcome to the show, mayor nagin. >> good morning. it's good to be here. >> when did you first realize the scope of the disaster of the tragedy? was there a single moment? >> well, there was a moment right after the storm that fema executive who was here, marty bar harmondi came and gave me this devastating report of what katrina had done. >> in the middle of the disaster as we all remember you went on radio that is and lashed out blasting what you called the slow pace of the federal and state efforts to rescue the tens of thousands of people who were stranded. let's listen to that for a moment. >> get off your [ bleep ] and let's do something and let's fix the biggest [ bleep ] crisis in the history of this country. they're feeding the public a line of bull, and people are dying down here. >> very harsh words. do you remember what it was that provoked that outrage that we hear in your tone there? do you remember what you were seeing and thinking at that time? >> well, at that time i was basically in and around the superdome, and i had already seen the devastation, so i knew that we were suffering, and many promises were being made, and i had a group to come down and see the disaster, and they never really left -- they left and never really promised anything. so at that particular point in time they were doing press conferences, and i just got frustrated and kind of lashed out. >> well, as mayor, mr. nagin, you ordered the mandatory evacuation of the city about 24 hours before the hurricane actually struck, but two days before that, you said that the coming storm scared you, that its projected path showed it heading toward new orleans. you urged people at that time to prepare, but no mandatory evacuation. in retrospect, should you have ordered that evacuation do you believe now sooner? >> well, we started our evacuation process, and we got about 80% to 85% of the people out, but we had never done a mandatory evacuation, and max mayfield called me saturday night and said you're definitely going to get hit, and the very next morning we ordered the mandatory. >> well, looking back five year, is there anything that haunts you about your role as the mayor in katrina? do you wish you had done anything differently? >> well, the mandatory evacuation had an eight-hour window which was not much, it was overnight. i could have done it earlier. managing expectations and i'm getting people to understand just how hard this would be, i think i could have done a better job of that also. >> well, it's five years later now. how much progress -- you're a lifelong resident of new orleans. how much progress has the city come back returning physically as well as in its spirit? >> it's amazing that five years later we are where we are. most of our citizens are back. the brookings institute just did a report as i was leaving that said our economy is better. we have more middle class people, the schools are better. but we still have a tremendous amount of work to do. the average recovery takes 10 to 15 years. we're only in year 5. >> one last question, mayor nagin. we're in the middle of a very active hurricane season. once again, if the hurricane of a same magnitude, a 4 or 5 were to hit your city, new orleans today, would they be any better prepared now than they were in 2005? >> you know, i lobbied very successfully for a lot of money to fix our hurricane protection system. they're investing about -- the american people are investing about $14 billion. it's a better system. another hurricane katrina that comes the same route, i think we'd have some overtopping, but you wouldn't see the same devastation. >> okay. former mayor ray nagin, thanks again for joining us. and as we mark -- >> thank you, america, for your help. >> thank you. as we mark five years since the storm, we want to look at some images from then and now. this first photo shows two men using boards to paddle through the high water near a bridge over the industrial canal, and this same bridge shown here today, new orleans, the lower ninard d& it c >> tha and this is the aftermath of katrina at the cemetery outside st. patrick's church in plaquemine pa this is the cem later with grass where there was onceat so that is some bit of optimism. >> five years. >> five year. >> some progress, yeah. >> some progress, indeed. turning to politics now and the competing ralln king's "i hve aspee saturday. at one glenn beck andara at the other, the reverend al sharpton. tahman bradley was there. >> reporter: conservatives and tea party supporters came to the national mall in droves, a rally cry from fox news commentator glenn beck. >> for too long this country has wandered in darkness. >> reporter: just steps below where dr. martin luther king gave his most famous speech 47 years ago -- >> faith, hope and charity. >> reporter: -- beck called not for civil rights but restoration and a renewal of faith. >> something beyond imagination is happening. america today begins to turn back to god. >> reporter: the event was mostly free of political rhetoric, even with remarks by former alaska governor sarah palin. >> let's stand together, let's stand with honor, let's restore america. >> reporter: beck called it a coincidence that he picked the 47th anniversary of dr. king's "i have a dream" speech to hold the rally. reverend al sharpton said he had the right to hold the rally but not to distort dr. king's message. dr. king's niece spoke. >> we need to rebuild america. >> reporter: an obvious effort to try to show inclusion on this historic day, but the crowd was almost all white giving critics an open door. >> we're not giving them this day. this is our day, and we ain't giving it away. >> reporter: even with republican leadership steering clear of the rally, beck's critics admit it was a strong show of force for the tea party movement. >> it's remarkable that a broadcaster was able to bring a couple hundred thousand people to the washington mall. >> reporter: beck had a dream, different than dr. king's, but strong enough to rally conservative masses. for "good morning america," tahman bradley, abc news, washington. >> for more on this, we turn to "this week" host, christiane amanpour in washington. good to see you, christiane. >> good morning, bianna. >> you were out there at the lincoln memorial. describe the atmosphere and what does it say about the momentum of the tea party right now? >> well, yes, i was there. i wanted to see for myself what was going on and listen to the speeches, and clearly there were a lot of people as you've been able to see in the reports, the overhead cameras. there was anywhere calculated between a hundred or several hundred thousand people there, and what i saw was mostly a fairly subdued crowd in that it wasn't completely rah-rah, hands waving but people paying a huge amount of attention to most of the speeches which were about religion, about god, about the title of the march, which was restoring honor, which meant about the military, and every time that the speakers spoke about members of the military at war in iraq or afghanistan, there were huge cheers, and it was about -- as speaker after speaker kept saying -- restoring patriotism and proud to be an american. i point that out because i think that is what got such a big cheer from people, and perhaps when we try to figure out why there's such a huge number of people coming to these rallies, in a period of time when people feel such anxiety, such anger, such sort of worry about what's going on around them, the economy and the rest, they come here, and they hear a feel-good message and that they respond to. >> you actually spoke to one of the rally's star speakers, sarah palin, of course. what did she have to say to you? >> well, you know, she was not giving interviews, per se, but as she walked off after her speech, i was backstage -- near backstage, and i did call out to her and she came up. i asked her what this meant in terms of a groundswell movement. but also what she thought it might mean in terms of her candidates, tea party candidates, conservative candidates doing at the midterms. and she basically said what she always says, that this is the moment for what she called commonsense social conservatives and that she believes that that will show up at the midterms, and obviously each and every one of the speakers kept saying that this was not a political rally but one that was about quote/unquote restoring honor, although, of course, the political part of it was demonstrated in the fact that so many people came, and clearly they came for -- to hear their political side of the current debate going on. >> yeah, that is true. indeed. meantime, the president is wrapping up his summer this week. we know he's in new orleans today delivering that major speech on iraq from the oval office tuesday night. what can we expect to hear from him tuesday night? >> well, he's obviously going to talk about how he has kept his promise as president, his promise during the campaign to wind down, to end the iraq war at the end of this month, the beginning of september. there will be 50,000 or just under american troops there who will not officially be in a combat role. they will be in a training role, although if the iraqis ask and if it's necessary, they will be able to intervene if there's any big spike of violence. he will obviously turn very, very sharply also to afghanistan because that is the big, big war still going on, still on the horizon. but we also are going to see whether the president talks about how iraq will continue its path and how the u.s. will continue to monitor what's going on, not just in a combat role, but in the political sense as well because as yet there's no government there, and the promise of democracy is on the way, but not fully there, and so it's going to take some u.s. oversight as well even as the troops have drawn down. >> that is true. very important speech for the president. that is for sure. thanks for joining us, christiane, and be sure to tune in to the show this week when she looks at efforts to fix the crisis in america's classrooms. her guests include arne duncan and d.c.'s school chancellor, michelle rhee. >> the rest of the day's news in for me, jeremy hubbard. >> thanks for moving over, ron. bianna, good morning to you. happy sunday. we're going to start in iraq where they're bracing for possible terror attacks this morning. security forces believe suicide bombers have plans to hit baghdad targets. insurgents have escalated attacks as american troops depart. an indonesian volcano is erupting for the first time in 400 years. mt. sinabung in the north sumatra province started rumbling four days ago. almost 10,000 people have been evacuated but no major damage yet. 69 cars piled up a rain-slickened interstate in phoenix. an unexpected downpour led to three different crashes and seven were taken to the hospital, two with serious injuries and the accidents forced the closings of interstate 10 for more than three hours. well, las vegas police now say a vapor trail coming out of a car led to the arrest of paris hilton. hilton was a passenger in a vehicle pulled over by an officer who smelled marijuana. the heiress was arrested when a small bag of cocaine fell out of her handbag. and finally, an amazing survivor story on the new york city subway. "the new york daily news" says a woman fell on the tracks as a train was rolling into the station on the city's east side but the sharp-eyed subway operator slammed on the brakes to stop just in time and helped the rescue. as you can imagine anybody who rides the subway -- >> the worst fear you have. >> the photographer paused to take out the picture. >> people were waving at the subway conduct story stop and stopped a 370-ton train. >> wow. always a big fear living in new york riding the subways here. we want to turn now to weather. marysol is off so chikage windler, we're going to go back to you. what is the latest? >> 28 cities on tap for the hottest summer on record. today will be no different. 10 to 15 degrees above normal including new york city and washington, d.c. points west through the upper midwest to minneapolis and st. paul. down south it's more rain plaguing areas like new orleans. >> and while it's hot in the east, in the west it is cool. bianna and ron? >> all right, chikage, thank you. coming up, marriage mystery. first the wife disappears and then after police question her husband about it, he suddenly vanishes too. we'll talk to the neighbor who first called the cops. it's pain relief without the pills. no pills, no pain. how can you get pain relief without taking pills around the clock? try thermacare heatwraps, for all day relief without pills. i was surprised, thermacare worked all day. you feel the heat. and it relaxes and unlocks the muscle. you've got to try it. 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[ whispering ] now with whole grain pasta. shh. you play god. you play god, and you just try to do the best you can and hope you make the right decisions. >> raw emotion from one of the many brave rescue workers who saved so many people after hurricane katrina. even now, five years later, the pain still lingers. bob woodruff checks back in with some of them as we mark the anniversary of that devastating storm. good morning, america. i'm bianna golodryga. >> and i'm ron claiborne and it's sunday, august 29th. also ahead this morning, a visit to a national park that is celebrating its 100th anniversary. glacier national park, a favorite spot for tourists and also for bears. it's one of the country's most pristine and beautiful natural treasures. >> i can't wait to see that. but we do begin with a mystery unfolding in southern california. police are investigating a bizarre twist in the case of a missing woman. when they questioned her husband last week, he said he hasn't seen her since march, but he never filed a missing person report. now he's disappeared too. barbara pinto has the details. >> reporter: investigators handed out flyers and questioned neighbors desperately trying to solve a disturbing mystery. 61-year-old marcia forsberg, a retired writer and a cancer survivor disappeared in february. her husband of nearly 40 years, richard, a college administrator told neighbors she had gone away. >> and they would give us a date of when she was supposed to get back, and that date would come, and she wasn't back. and then we would ask again and then after a while, he then said that they were having marital problems, and they were in a trial separation. >> we heard that she had gone to see some friends in arizona, so we didn't think anything of it. >> reporter: but when weeks of calls and e-mails went unreturned, close friends wrote letters to neighbors asking if anyone had seen marcia. finally last week they called police. richard forsberg told investigators he had last seen his wife in march but didn't report her missing. when police returned the next day, richard forsberg was gone along with his wife's car, a silver volkswagen beetle like this one. >> he's not been to work in a couple of days which is unusual by itself. there's no cell phone activity on his cell phone and needless to say there's been no cell phone or financial transaction on marcia, the missing person. >> reporter: investigators searched the forsbergs' home and seized richard forsberg car while neighbors grow suspicious of the man would told them he recently started taking a survival course. police searching for the forsbergs call richard a person of interest in this case but say he is not suspected of any crime. for "good morning america," barbara pinto, abc news. >> careen aburto is a friend and neighbor of the missing couple and join us frommive vine, california. good morning, careen. thanks for joining us. >> you're welcome. >> you were the one who actually reported marcia missing to the police. when did you start to notice that something was wrong here? >> oh, about 3 1/2 months, 4 months ago. >> and what led you to think something was wrong? >> well, i hadn't seen marcia for quite a while, which isn't unusual because she stays in the house a lot because of seasonal allergies. >> it's been six months since she's been missing now. was there any change in her character and her personality leading up to her ultimate disappearance? >> no, i didn't notice anything out of the ordinary with her. >> and how about her husband, richard? how familiar were you with him and did you encounter him as frequently as you did marcia? >> no, i did not encounter him as frequently, but his manner changed. he was coming and going at all hours, so it's like he wasn't going to his job on time or at all. >> and as a neighbor obviously this is something that you perceive and see every day and describe richard and marcia as a couple. they've been together for 40 years. how were they together? >> they were high school sweethearts, and they acted like it. >> and what did you think when you ultimately found out that rick also went missing after speaking with police? >> i thought, like most people would probably think, he's on the run. >> and what do you think about the fact that rick had been taking a survivor course in the past few months? >> i find that extremely strange. i told my husband something was wrong when i saw him start driving marcia's car, and he left his car in the driveway. >> so you're ultimately saying you didn't see any signs of a husband who was grieving or upset about either the disappearance or the abandonment of a wife? >> no, in fact, he was actually seemed jovial. >> well, what can you tell us lastly about marcia as a person, as a neighbor and as a friend? >> she just -- she makes friends quick and fast, and she loves people. she gets along with everybody, and i just want her to -- if she's out there watching, to just get ahold of somebody because nobody knows where you are. >> well, careen, we do hope for the safe return of your friend. we appreciate your time this morning. thanks for joining us. >> thank you. >> such a bizarre story not just because the husband just left but because he never reported her missing. >> tells thecoulds i haven't seen her since march so you wonder -- the next question is why didn't you? >> we want to turn to jeremy hubbard. good to see you. >> good morning, ron, happy sunday, everyone. in the news seven u.s. troops have died in afghanistan this weekend. two in attacks today, five on saturday. 41 americans have died in afghan fighting this month. chile is trying to find a faster way to rescue 33 trapped miners. they are considering digging a second escape mine. bill manchin won for the u.s. senate. that gives him the party's nomination to run in the race to rereplace the late robert byrd. crews planted 16 trees here. the first of almost 400 trees that will create a quiet green space at the 9/11 memorial to those who died in the terror attacks nearly nine years ago now. >> that's a quick look at the headlines. now over to chikage windler from our affiliate kstp. >> thank you, jeremy. what we're dealing with is more rip current threat. yesterday 100 water rescues and unfortunately one fatality at rockaway beach, new york. that's where we have some video showing people that were out dealing with the waves and surfers, you may love this but it's extremely dangerous. rip currents can be a big problem. rough surf and earl which is a tropical storm now with 70-mile-per-hour maximum sustained winds likely to intensify into a major hurricane as we head toward the late week. at this point folks from north carolina to cape cod, you need to pay close attention to this one as it could come very close to land. as for the nation's weather, sunny and hot in new york city, 94 degrees. cooler in seattle at 64 and in mission st. paul, a high today of 90. >> this weat >> this weather segment sponsored by dairy queen. >> all right. chikage, thank you. coming up on "good morning america" revisiting new orleans with some of the pilots and paramedics who rescued so many after katrina and why they can't forget the ones they were forced to leave behind. >> bianna, you're going to like this one. it is a scenic diversion in the rockies where you've never been. our "weekend window" opens to glacier national park in montana. >> i can't wait to see that. 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[ female announcer ] splenda®. america's favorite no calorie sweetener. as we mark the fifth anniversary of hurricane katrina, we want to remember some of the heroes of hurricane katrina. the brave men and women who cared for the helpless in hospitals and made daring rescues to save those stranded by the storm, and bob woodruff went back to visit some of these real-life guardian angels. >> reporter: good morning, ron. there have been so many that saved so many people here, saved their lives, but many of them have actually been very, very honest about how they feel, very open about how they feel. other ones have really kind of buried it now, but one of the guys that i met five years ago and had the chance again this week to talk to, he has been very open in the past and to this day he has not been able to forget it. when katrina hit new orleans, its hospitals became some of the most dangerous places in the city. they lost power and lights. patients essentially trapped inside for days. the people who saved so many lives were the doctors, the nurses, the pilots and the paramedics. you guys closed down your operation. one of the heroes i met during katrina is marc creswell, an air paramedic who loaded sick patients into the helicopters from the roof of the turow infirmary. this week he took us again over the city of new orleans, the sights he will never forget. if you get another disaster, are you going to do it differently than you did last time? >> nope. no, i can sleep good every night knowing i did the best that i could. >> reporter: he told me about those decisions five years ago. >> so many people that you look at and you make an on-site judgment that this person will never survive, and you put them at the back of the line. the young don't have preference over the old and the old don't have preference over the dying and whatnot. the best chance of survival goes first. >> reporter: you play god? >> yeah. >> reporter: is it just starting to hit you? >> right when you said that. i've been doing it for 16 years, and the first time i've ever moved people to the back of the line, and i know those people died. i'm not proud of it, but a lot more people lived because we did that. >> reporter: after all these years, he like so many others here cannot let it go. if they could just save one life, it's well worth it. >> yeah. it is. i saved a bunch too, so it's good stuff. i like this job. >> reporter: you got to remember that five years ago marc did not sleep for four days while he was trying to save so many people. we just don't know the numbers that all of these doctors, these nurses, those paramedics, those pilots actually did save but you got to remember that back then for days, the patients were actually trapped inside those hospitals because they had lost all of their power, their electricity, and they just could not get them out in time so they could actually save their lives. ron? >> and, bob, i know that you were inside of turow infirmary when those hospitals lost their power. what did you see? what was it like? >> reporter: well, there's a lot of examples of this, but the one i will never forget while i was there, there was one woman that actually did pass away and the reason why she did was because literally they could not get her out of the bed because they could not get her out and because they had no power, actually the temperature of the bed was going too high. they could not control that, and that was ultimately the end to her life, and i saw those certainly on top of the roof. there were 70 up there at the time i was there. for all those days, there were no helicopters that could get in to finally get there until actually these were private helicopter companies, this was acadian at the time that marc was with, and they did not end working. even though it was actually gunfire, firing off at them when they were flying, so this was a very, very long and very emotional time for everybody that was there including me. >> all right, thanks very much, bob woodruff, thanks for that and all of your great reporting down there. coming up on "good morning america," a visit to the place native americans call the backbone of the world. ♪ [ smack! ] [ smack! smack! smack! ] [ male announcer ] your favorite foods fighting you? fight back fast with tums. calcium rich tums goes to work in seconds. nothing works faster. ♪ tum ta tum tum tums aveeno hair shines in real life. new aveeno nourish plus shine with active naturals wheat smooths damaged cuticles for 75% more shine in one use. real shine, for real life. yours. [ female announcer ] new aveeno nourish plus shine. yours. hey, you guys. want to try activia's great new taste? isn't this the yogurt that, yo know.../ helps regulate your digestive system. trust me. it is beyond tasty. mmm. this is really good! new best tasting activia ever! taste it, love it, or it's free! time to face the pollen that used to make me sneeze... my eyes water. but now zyrtec®, the fastest 24-hour allergy relief, comes in a liquid gel. zyrtec® liquid gels work fast, so i can love the air®. we finally found a place that bianna has never been to. >> i haven't. >> okay. it is in the northern rockies, a million acres of forest, alpine meadows, jagged peaks and lakes make up glacier national park. the park is celebrating its centennial this year. thanks to our friends at national geographic it is where our "weekend window" opens this morning in high definition, bianna. glacier national park, 6 dramatic peaks over 10,000 feet, all carved by glaciers, lakes that hold icebergs year round, countless waterfalls fed by melting snow and ice, and summer is the perfect time to explore this park and all the wonder it offers. marc ankenbauer is six years into an eight-year quest to jump into all of the named lakes in the waterton glacier wilderness, an estimated 168. >> definitely not a bad view. i've done 116 lakes up till now. this project has made me very attached to the park. 117. >> reporter: perhaps as attached to the park as marc are the bears. >> that's a good sample. i think it might be grizzly. the first footage that we got was just unbelievably amusing. >> reporter: video was captured by remote cameras set up by kate kendall. >> we just couldn't believe our lucky stars that we had captured this behavior on film. >> reporter: kate uses her data to gather information on the various bears that live in the park. 1.2 million acres of mountain ranges, lakes and valleys. 936 miles of rivers and streams. 700 miles of hiking trails. a magnificent, picturesque landscape just waiting to be explored. and "america's wild spaces: glacier national park" premieres next saturday, september 4th on the national geographic channel. we'll be right back. >> i'm planning my trip now. ♪ thank you! ♪ phew! 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