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| Morning on St. Mary Lake, Glacier National Park |
glacier national park 2006
Through many varied visits to this majestic, wild and vast preserve known as Glacier National Park, I've formed many opinions and thoughts. The park seems overwhelming at first with with stunning mountain peaks (many covered year-round with glaciers) and the sheer diversity of its plant and animal life. The unofficial mascot is the grizzly, a refugee from the high plains but all, especially people, seem to be just visitors here.
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| Sunrift Gorge |
With such a short non-winter season, this remote area seems crowed with all things plant, animal and human when a visit is possible, but gives the sense of just how inhospitable it can be in all other seasons.
The human influence:
Named to describe the slow-moving glaciers that carved awe-inspiring valleys throughout this expanse of nearly 1 million acres, Glacier National Park exists because of the efforts of George Bird Grinnell, a 19th-century magazine publisher and cofounder of the Audubon Society. Following a pattern established with Yellowstone and Grand Teton, Grinnell lobbied for a national park to be set aside in the St. Mary region of Montana, and in May 1910 his efforts were rewarded. Just over 20 years later, it became, with its northern neighbor Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada, Glacier-Waterton International Peace Park--a gesture of goodwill and friendship between the governments of two countries.
Needless to say, this is a very exciting place to visit, explore and photograph. The opportunities are limitless for each and all of these endeavors and can be approached in several ways.
The park layout:
For most, the west side of the park with it's user friendly facilities will be most inviting. On the east is the Blackfeet Reservation along with the park's units of Two Medicine and Many Glacier. The two sides are connected by the Going to the Sun road with Lake McDonald on the west and St. Mary Lake on the East. Verdant mountain trails that cry out for hikers and this more quiet and unique world can be found in all areas of the park and in each country as well!
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| The wildfire smoke diffuses a rising sun to create this magical glow on Swiftcurrent Lake at sunrise |
The plan 2006:
My prior visits have been done in many ways, from camping in all sections of the park in summer, to as little as a few short hours trapped in a vehicle on the way from somewhere I can't remember to places I've long forgotten. What they all had in common is they all evoked a feeling of fleeting opportunity. A feeling that a longer visit and the willingness to explore should be considered. With all this in mind, a back country hike, an exploratory safari and formal workshop were all planned and in that order, done!
The photography:
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| In the high country August is spring! |
The plan presented many problems that concerned the photography directly. First there was the need to fly. Driving would have taken much time that was not available for this outing. I don't think much needs to be said about the price of fuel that would be needed for a commute between Arizona and Montana. Options were limited also by the length of time involved to accomplish all three endeavors planned and where and when the photography would take place. If I brought all that I would have liked in the way of photo equipment it would have meant leaving much of it behind in a vehicle, campground or hotel while the 3 day back country hike took place. It would also make it necessary to store gear while on some of the shoots and hikes of the workshop also.
Weight is an important consideration when hiking. The pack you carry makes photographing possible but can limit severely your ability to get to locations. Like everything else in photography, it's a -give up something to get something- propitiation most of the time!
The photo gear:
For the entire 12 days my kit included only 2 camera bodies (X-Pan & Canon 1Ds MKll) and 5 lenses (2 Canon 3 X-Pan) I left the X-Pan gear behind for the high country but used it before and during the workshop. Even this left more than I should have attempted for the 3 day high country adventure leading to a minor knee inquiry on the way back. A one series camera body and 2.8 L lens do not make good backpacking companions. Sometimes I'm up for the challenge but common sense says this is foolish. I did manage my 24-70 and 70-200 2.8's though. As is usually the case, I made use of everything I had with me and I found myself seldom in want of gear I did not have.
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| Seemingly everywhere at times and with horns and hooves like daggers The goats were often the object of both my photography and respect! |
Hiking in the back country:
Like all places of great wonder and beauty, I think it is necessary to get away from the confines of a vehicle and be set free of restraints and restrictions that are normally associated with roads and crowds. No one ever said this is easy but the rewards are unique and inspiring. If you want the easy way, follow most of the people most of the time, but at least consider the other path, is what I like to plead!
When the Great Northern Railroad built all the great (now historic) lodges in the park, they also built a series of high country chalets that could be visited only by foot or horseback. Through the years only two in Glacier N. P. are still maintained and only one of them as a full service, food and bed, facility. Granite Park Chalet is a shared facility with kitchen privileges for those that are willing to bring their own provisions, Sperry Chalet is still maintained with a full staff and offers lodging and food. However, both take "some getting to!"
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| Slow shutter speeds created by the need for depth of field make moving wildflowers hard to photograph. |
The use of the Soft-Ray filter from Singh-Ray makes the highlights sparkle. This image is flat without the filter. |
Glacier N. P. by nature is tall peaks and valleys separated by rivers, steams and lakes. Vast and fertile, the trails are at most times challenging. Even the short hike to Sperry Chalet was a full days worth of energy for us. From the trail head at Lake McDonald to the chalet is 6.4 miles with an elevation gain of 3400 feet! Our hiking time was approximately 5 hours with a stop for lunch from the pack along the trail. The trail is a heavily used portal to the high country and you won't feel lonely most of the time. We found quickly that goats assume they have the right away on the trail and we learned to step aside quietly and sometimes quickly! We also found the downward bound hikers quite amusing as they came up with varied and different ways to say .... it's a lot easier down than up! We greatly thanked all of them for their insight! Once there the rewards were instant. The vista is breathtaking and the photo opportunities non stop!
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| Home is where the heart is! A rainbow over "the hotel" at Sperry Chalet greets the new day. |
Our second day out of the chalet saw us on the trail to Sperry glacier, another 1600 feet of elevation gain in 3.5 miles. Talking with the many hikers that visit this area, some of them on a regular basis, we learned that the joy is in the travel and not necessary in the destination. While the glacier is one of the biggest in the park, it is only the end of a long trail, and though spectacular, the trail itself is reward enough for the effort. We were quite happy to have this information from so many, when after 3 hours of steady climbing, we decided that the steady increasing cold wind and threatening rain had brought temperatures, that seemed now close to freezing, were a good reason to call "here" the end of the trail for the day! A group of hikers coming off the wall that separated us and glacier encouraged us to continue stating that it was just ahead, "a dynamited staircase with hand rail was all that needed to be done now" we were urged. The prompting was not enough but we'll certainly be back another time for the try and I was not one bit disappointed by either the habitat, exhilaration of the climb or the images made that day!
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| Bowman Lake at sunset provided a perfect end to one of the workshop's longest days. |
The Workshop:
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| 3400 feet above Lake McDonald the vista is shared by goats and hikers alike. |
While at Sperry Chalet the concern mounted for the success of the workshop. A fire that started the day we arrived in the park, was fast becoming a major threat. Although we were a few miles from Red Eagle Valley where it started at Sperry Chalet, and we never experienced even the scent of smoke due to the direction of the wind, reports from the back country ranger were not encouraging while we were there. The Going to the Sun road was closed for the 4 days prior to our workshop but re-opened the day before our group arrived.
Spirits rose!
Although smoke was dense on the east side of the park we were not hindered in our travel to any of its major attractions. In fact we found almost nothing about the conditions that detracted from our goals. At times we were even grateful! While the fire did force the evacuation of the town of St. Mary for awhile, nothing in the way of man made structures were harmed and the tourist dollars had begun to flow again as our workshop started. Smoke shrouded lakes and forests began to take on a mystic appeal in some cases and even presented us with opportunities for compositions that would not have been available under normal conditions.
We found ourselves also presented with conditions in the two east units that were astoundingly unexpected. The east side of the park is the windy, and sometimes referred to as, the nasty side. Trees in a lot of places in this section have branches on only one side. Leaves, and sometimes even branches being all but non existent on a lot of them. Stark testimony to the sharp weather conditions here and a constant reminder for us that time is limited for us.
Contrary to what was expected, what we found, for the most part, was calm and tranquility! Two medicine Lake was like glass and the opportunity for reflection images unlimited. I found myself stopping my photography many times just to take in the vista! St. Mary Lake, usually awash in white caps, was also calm. With the smoke hanging on the water it resembled something like fog. Even the appearance of an upstream tourist boat was not able to break the quiet and I watched as most of the group waited to include it in at least one frame. After the light broke, the clouds and peaks became aglow, while the glacier in the distance took on the shimmer of morning There were moments here too where it was just fine to watch and let the flow be uninterrupted by the need to do anything else. The very essence of f/8 and be there!
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| Spring is only a few short weeks | A quarter moon rising at sunset |
The west side of the park continued to cooperate for us also. Everywhere we went the conditions seemed to be ideal. This is hard to imagine when compared to previous visits. I continued to witness scenes that I have never experienced before. The fire areas of years gone by were alive with wildflowers. The glacial lake that is called Bowman, not far from the Canadian border, provided us with yet another picture perfect sunset and one can not begin to describe the culinary treat that is the bakery at the little settlement known as Polebridge! This is a section of the park that very few actually experience but one that holds many treasures with two lakes and unlimited hiking trails.
Our stay at the historic Glacier Park lodge added both atmosphere and afforded us the ability to experience the more remote places of the park's east side. A step into this amazing structure built in the early 1900's is indeed a step back in time. Providing elegance and charm with all the amenities of a first class hotel, we were comfortably based, and in the few moments of rest that doing a workshop at this time of the year allows ...... we rested. The lodge is so beautifully situated that landscape photography from your balcony is not only possible but I'm sure would have taken place had we been there, and not out in the field almost continuously, as is our practice!
Speaking the language of Photography:
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| The workshop group at Grinnell Lake |
The long days and short nights made our shooting days quite productive. It was due to the dedication and appreciation from our group that made covering as much of this great area possible. Certainly there were moments were lack of sleep translated to lack of judgment photographically. But not so that thousands of frames of incredible landscape, in light that looked like a technicolor dream, were not captured!
As with every shoot and workshop, I seem to have more of an understanding of what I'd like to do and say with my photography. This expedition and workshop added much to my knowledge and understanding. I don't think I've gotten all the vocabulary down yet needed to speak this language of Glacier National Park, but I've sure opened the dictionary and added many new words, or maybe even phrases, this time.
Maybe by next year's workshop and visit ....... I'll be fluent!
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