What Does Your Playground Look Like?

"Freedom"

     When all was said and done and the snow started to fall last October I had over 2,500 images safely on my hard drive. There are many that I can't wait to share with you all as the dreary winter continues to deprive us of our Vitamin D but this one is my favorite. This one means more to me than any other that I took this summer. It's not a bad view but it is not the most artistic or fantastic shot that I took this year. It does say a lot though, doesn't it? Here is what it means to me. 

     When the kiddos were little they would bug Jill and I to take them to the park to play. What they meant was one of the city parks with a playground that we used to visit a lot when we lived in Kansas City for a time. Swings and a lot of wood chips, right? Not that we wouldn't ever take them there but when Jill and I were talking about taking a trip to Glacier National Park and the kids only heard "park" they 

Swiftcurrent Glacier

were always super disappointed when we explained this park didn't have any swing sets. That was several years ago. You see them now, though? We had hiked close to 7 miles to get to this point. Around mile 6 we had left the trail and almost all other people and found our own way. In The picture to the right I circled where we are. Don't worry, I warned them to not go close to the edge of the cliff. We had taken a few minutes to eat our ham and cheese sandwiches and had already got into a sketchy spot on that icy section of the glacier but I was really chomping at the bit to make it down onto that shelf.  We had been above Swiftcurrent the week before as we climbed up to Swiftcurrent Lookout, partly to get to North Swiftcurrent Glacier and partly to scout out our route to Swiftcurrent. Compared to some of the other glaciers that we had already visited this one must have receded more recently. There was very little vegetation which has grown. Just the bedrock and shale chunks. There were all kinds of little treasures of uniqueness that we wanted to check out. I really wanted to peak over the edge on top of one of those falls, too. Who wouldn't?

     What this picture means to me is quite a few things at once. After the recession (economic, that is) my thriving wedding photography business is down to a trickle. We lost the 6,400 sq ft home that Jill and I and my father-in-law built and we live in a 603 sq ft cabin that we built instead. Yes, all 8 of us. I've taken a couple of odd jobs to make it through. I am praying that we are "making it through" though because it sure seems like there isn't a light at the end of the tunnel a lot of the time these past 3 years. I'm not trying to complain but I'm compelled to share the truth and not pretend that life is all fluffy white clouds and puppy dogs. There are times like this day when life is awesome and then there are times . . .  
 let's just say that I get somewhat jealous of all the folks we pass on the trail who have all the most expensive top of the line equipment so that they can spend all day without ever leaving the trail. I mentioned Kansas? Well, when we left, we turned down a really great management position to get back to Montana. I just couldn't face living in the flat lands with only a couple of weeks a year that we would get to visit Glacier. Trust me, I have kicked myself many times since, too. 

     In this image, I see my kiddos enjoying what very, very few people will ever get to experience in person. I see them getting to be a part of this project where people will recognize them as "those kiddos with the crazy dad that dragged them all over one of our Nation's greatest treasures to preserve it's namesake through his art form." Our shoes were bought used and not new. The only bit of equipment we purchased new was my wife's Osprey Backpack that she let the kids borrow all summer. 

     Don't get me wrong, I'm going to be searching out sponsors and partners all winter so that we can explore in a lot more comfort next summer. I'm confident our we will sell many copies of our coffee table book, too. The point I'm making is that we got out there any way. We didn't need all the greatest equipment to enjoy ourselves. My kids are not addicted to video games and they are tough as mountain goats. They are learning that it is more important to enjoy what you have and not to be disappointed with what you don't have. I want them to have a lot more than we do right now eventually. I am grateful that they are learning these life lessons early on, though. I'm sure we won't stay in the financial slump that we have lived in for the past few years and I hope that they never forget how much we enjoyed this last summer without all the bells and whistles. 

This is what that great big crack in the shelf from the perspective shot above looks like up close. 

Okay, this is just really neat, right?

This is Swiftcurrent Glacier. You notice the trough of annual snow at the bottom tip? The reason that it is there and has melted everywhere else is because of the massive amount of cold air that jets out from under the glacier and flows down over top of that patch. The wind we felt standing below the glacier felt like opening the door to a walk in freezer.

This is the top of one of the waterfalls I was talking about. Made it!

You can see Swiftcurrent Lookout in the upper right corner of this image. That's the vantage point from which I took the over-head picture.

At the bottom of Swiftcurrent Glacier we found all kinds of "glacier silt." It's hard to believe that this mucky clay-like mud caused by the many years of embedded glacial rocks grinding up the bedrock as this glacier slowly moves will eventually cause all the lakes below to have that un-real turquoise color. 

You can see the color of the lakes as the run-off from Swiftcurrent Glacier begins its journey to the Atlantic. You can also spot a couple of goofballs to the left of the image. The Many Glacier Hotel is just out of site down this drainage.

Mt. Wilbur