This is what the Lord says – your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go.
If you pay attention to my commands, your peace will be like a river.
Isaiah 48:17,18*
Peace like a river.
photos taken on January 24, 2010, McDonald Creek in Glacier National Park, Montana
*my edit of verse 18
Just before NinePipes, the Mission Mountains started making an appearance. We headed for Charlo and the National Bison Range area.
Charlo, MT was originally a trail crossing for freighters hauling grain and other goods from the rich Ronan Valley to the railroad at Dixon. The place was first called Big Flat, then Charlotte, and later Charlo, in honor of Chief Charlo of the Flatheads, one of the few chiefs who refused to sign Special Commissioner James A. Garfield’s order (August 27, 1872) removing all Indians of the region to the Jocko reservation. Joseph Dixon, a governor and US Senator, was instrumental in establishing the name Charlo.
The Bison Range is technically in Moise, MT but most know Charlo as the “gateway”.
This was my first visit to the range.
Not even buffalo, antelope or elk…
White tail deer, though.
And a river runs through it.
And there was sunshine.
We took the “Looking for Alpenglow” show on the road last evening. The start was visible on the mountain tops that we see through the trees but neighbors are in residence making the usual loop off limits.
Temperatures stayed very cold and skies very clear all day. As the sun set behind Blacktail Mountain, west of the valley, the glow started low.
The telltale pink hit some low clouds.
Some of the pink hit the mountain tops.
And the light lit the road home.
A forecast winter storm finally arrived. It snowed heavily most of yesterday and the skies were gray and overcast as they have been for days. But it cleared overnight and the temperature dropped to 9F. The waning half lit the woods through the trees…
…a spot of deep blue sky and the moonlit tops of the mountains sent Karl and I down the road in the Jeep to see what we could see.
Morning moonlight.
These old barns…I’m forever wanting to catch this group just right…me and every other photographer that passes by them! They are just west of MT Highway 35 south of Woody’s and north of the Creston curve. There is a stand of 5 pine trees just to the east of the barns.
Today, just these old barns.
The nearly full moon rising over the mountains, through the clouds.