GLACIER: Crown of the Continent / Spring & Summer of 2021 (Book Release!)
Announcing: “Glacier” Book Release! || First post in the series about my journeys to Glacier National Park in the Spring and Summer of 2021
Book Release Announcement!!
“Glacier: Crown of the Continent / Spring & Summer of 2021” is published and available via my website and Blurb.
“Glacier: Crown of the Continent / Spring & Summer of 2021” is a travel photography book that provides historical information on Glacier National Park, as a backdrop to set the stage for the book’s images that depict the park’s treasures by traversing Going to the Sun Road, hiking the areas of Logan Pass, Rising Sun, Lake McDonald, Two Medicine and Many Glacier, offers travel tips and picture taking insights for a journey to Glacier, and brings awareness to the impact of climate change upon the park and the need for increased conservation efforts to preserve it!
In this Book
You will see hundreds of images, from my journeys throughout Glacier, depicting the park’s treasure including glaciers, mountains, lakes, rivers, streams and waterfalls, wildlife, and much more. Here are a few examples of what you will see:
Introduction
I first learned about Glacier National Park through my childhood interest in Native American history spurred by my father’s similar interest, and later in Geology classes during college. My fascination with the park grew in parallel with my development of landscape photography skills but I did not plan a visit to Glacier until the Winter of 2019. Covid-19 ruined my first plan for 2020. Luckily, hotels allowed most of my reservations to be carried forward, a great advantage for 2021 due to Glacier’s popularity and difficulty in securing reservations. I planned two separate trips to Glacier for 2021: (1) May 21 to June 11; and (2) August 20 to September 9.
Glacier’s sheer size, difficult terrain, unpredictable and harsh weather, and even wildlife pose significant challenges with respect to photography in the park. I chose itineraries focused around the edge of seasons because harsh weather conditions often lead to even more incredible images. Luckily, and in a relatively short period of time, I saw weather indicative of all four seasons multiple times. For example, I arrived in late May to a western Montana landscape blanketed in snow that appeared desolate, barren and lonely like the Arctic tundra but merely two days later I saw warm temperatures above 60 degrees Fahrenheit (16 degrees Celsius) with clear, blue skies.
Weather compromised access to certain areas of the park, aggressive bear or other animal related activity closed different areas at different times, and the lingering impact of Covid-19 forced closure of the US-Canadian international border which made travel to Goat Haunt essentially out of reach during the time allotted for my trips. Despite all of these challenges, I covered a vast majority of the park’s main attractions and many lesser known gems all of which appear in this book.
Once in a Lifetime Experiences
In Glacier, I took approximately 12,000 photos in my 6 weeks, across 4 separate months, and had many once in a lifetime experiences such as:
- I saw and photographed for the first time several different animals including grizzly bears (even a mother leading her cub), a golden, blonde black bear, a momma moose leading her newborn calf, and mountain goats. You will see images of all of them in this book!
- I learned of a depth of personality that grizzly bears exhibit such as: huffing, puffing, grunting and even smiling exuberantly as they rummage for berries; frowning with disdain at loud noises; and politeness where their expression and gestures appeared to ask for permission to cross the road in front of me.
- I tasted wild huckleberries for the first time on the Iceberg Lake trail and felt like a bear myself. Now I know why bears are so excited to find them!
- I had the pleasure of staying in both the Many Glacier Hotel and the Lake McDonald Lodge which transported me back to the early 20th century with the feeling of a ski trip in the Swiss Alps.
- I took a day trip to Polebridge and devoured one of their world famous huckleberry bear claws over a cup of coffee.
- I saw a diversity of wildflowers, unlike I have ever seen before, bursting into life in early Spring.
- I witnessed extreme weather changes such as an intense snowstorm in late August, flooding conditions along Virginia Creek, a brief Summer heat wave and thick smoke from California fires.
- I hiked the Grinnell Glacier Trailhead multiple times and even captured sunset pictures there which means braving the last couple of miles back to camp in the pitch black.
Make the Journey & Help Conserve the Park!
As always, creating this book, and reliving the experiences through my notes and photographs, gave me almost as much joy as the journey itself. I enjoyed researching and writing about all of the places I visited during my trip.
Hopefully this blog post and book will inspire you to make the journey to Glacier, as much as Glacier inspired me while there! I hope you will join me to do your part to help protect our planet’s environment which will also help preserve this incredible park and its inhabitants.
Special Thanks
A very special thanks to The Blackfeet Nation, the Glacier National Park rangers and to all of the staff of Johnson’s Campground and RV Park, Saint Mary Lodge, Lake McDonald Lodge, Many Glacier Hotel and the Swiftcurrent Motor Inn especially considering the difficult circumstances of Covid-19 and 2021.
