Snowy Spring Day - Kootenai Creek - Near Stevensville, Montana

“…one is inclined to quess that, apart from the acquisition of knowledge and the exhilaration of climbing, more pleasure is to be found at the foot of the mountains than on their tops….” - John Muir (1838-1914)

Small Facts - Grant Creek, Missoula, Montana

“Beside the grand history of the glaciers and their own, the mountain streams sing the history of every avalanche or earthquake and of snow, all easily recognized by the human ear, and every word evoked by the falling leaf and drinking deer, beside a thousand other facts so small and spoken by the stream in so low a voice the human ear cannot hear them. “ — John Muir (1838-914, Mountain Thoughts

Bridger Mountain Peaks - Near Livingston, Montana

“In God's wildness lies the hope of the world -- the great fresh, unblighted, unredeemed wilderness.” 

-- John Muir (1838-1914)

Tree Song - Missoula, Montana

"A few minutes ago every tree was excited, bowing to the roaring storm, waving, swirling, tossing their branches in glorious enthusiasm like worship. 
But though to the outer ear these trees are now silent,
 their songs never cease."

- John Muir (1838-1914)

Nature At Work - Bitterroot Valley, Montana

"Nature is ever at work 
 building and pulling down, 
 creating and destroying,
keeping everything
 whirling and flowing,
allowing
 no rest
but in rhythmical motion,
 chasing everything
in endless song
 out of one 
beautiful form 
into another."

- John Muir (1838-1914)

Words of God - Missoula, Montana

"Rocks and waters...are words of God, and so are men. 
We all flow from one fountain Soul."

- John Muir (1838-1914)

Tree Wanderers - Up Grant Creek, Missoula, Montana

"Trees go wandering forth in all directions with every wind, going and coming like ourselves, traveling with us around the sun two million miles a day, and through space heaven knows how fast and far!"

-John Muir (1838-1914)

Golden Winter Grass - Missoula, Montana

"Hidden in the glorious wildness like unmined gold." - John Muir (1838-1914)

Winter Gold - Missoula, Montana

"Hidden in the glorious wildness like unmined gold." - John Muir

Storm Detritus Along Grant Creek - Missoula, Montana

"A few minutes ago every tree was excited, bowing to the roaring storm, waving, swirling, tossing their branches in glorious enthusiasm like worship. 
But though to the outer ear these trees are now silent, their songs never cease." - John Muir (1838-1914)

Scenic View - South Toward Helena, Montana

“Keep close to Nature's heart... and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. 
Wash your spirit clean.” - John Muir (1838-1914)

Patient Wanderers - Missoula, Montana

“It has been said that trees are imperfect men, and seem to bemoan their imprisonment rooted in the ground. But they never seem so to me. I never saw a discontented tree. They grip the ground as though they liked it, and though fast rooted they travel about as far as we do. They go wandering forth in all directions with every wind, going and coming like ourselves, traveling with us around the sun two million miles a day, and through space heaven knows how fast and far!” - John Muir, July 1890