Glacier Waters

Nature never fails to amaze. From one month to the next, the landscape gradually shifts to make way for new wonders and beauty.

I go up to Glacier Park often during the quiet seasons. It's a nice place to ponder and relax and imagine myself living 150+ years ago alongside the people in my books. Oh, how I envy them at times. Their lives were certainly not easier, but perhaps simpler.

The Gallaghers wake each morning to tend to their cattle, horses, and children. The Whitcombs oversee the mine and look after the people in their mountain valley. The men and women of Crooked Creek, no matter their duties, watch their tiny town slowly grow now that the war is over and more people head West. The McKenzie Sisters . . . well, their lives are more complicated than the others, but still simpler than ours. That leaves the British Agents and their wives, who have never set foot in the American West, but still, I envy them.

It is because of natural wonders and undeveloped land, such as national parks, that capturing moments like this is still possible. If you look really close (super close) at the image below, you will notice a man sitting on a rock ledge reading a book. I watched him for a little while, envious that he found that spot at the right moment of the morning, to shut out the world and read. The rushing waters of McDonald Creek blocked out all other sounds. Once I put away the camera, there was time enough to enjoy nature's symphony and remember why such places are vital and in need of cherishing.

Now, because of a shoulder injury (the darn thing got dislocated), this post is going to be difficult to finish, so I will leave you with a few more images from my weekend visit to the park, and a short (and wobbly) video clip of glacier waters roaring over their well-carved path.

“A lake is a landscape’s most beautiful and expressive feature. It is Earth’s eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature.” – Henry David Thoreau

“The lake and the mountains have become my landscape, my real world.” – Georges Simenon

Be well, be kind, and stay safe.

—MK