Wild Montana Sky and Mission Mountains - Approaching KMSO, Missoula, Montana

Always happy to return home to the wide and wild Montana skies - and gorgeous new snow on the Mission range this trip! (At least I'm pretty sure those are the Missions...please correct me if I'm wrong here!). 

Pop-Up Mission Mountains - Ravalli, Montana

Never gets old, whatever the season - that first pop-up view of the Mission range upon cresting Highway 93's winding hill just past Ravalli, Montana. 

"I think back to ... the dry summers when Father and George and the other homesteaders watched as cloud after cloud dragged across the Rockies and the tufts of rain would catch on the distant peaks and be of no help to their fields." - The Whistling Season by Ivan Doig (1939-2015), p. 46-47 (lg type)

Spring Greens and Mountains - Mission Mountains, Montana

Layers of so much greenness near Flathead Lake, Montana, from the ongoing spring rain! But further Southwest, persistent precipitation provoked state of emergency flooding - along with an outpouring of  Big Sky sized kindness to assist families in the flooded communities.  We live, at times, precariously on the fine edge between extravagant  beauty and the fear of too much.

Mission Mountains Marsh Melody - Near Ronan, Montana

“The marsh, to him who enters it in a receptive mood, holds, besides mosquitoes and stagnation, melody, the mystery of unknown waters, and the sweetness of Nature undisturbed by man.” - Charles William Beebe (1877-1962), The Log of the Sun

Meadow To Mountains - Near Ronan, Montana

Click here to hear the meadowlark serenade of my soggy boggy traipse in pursuit of this vie near Ronan, Montana.

Vast Layers - Mission Mountains, Montana

Random thought on today’s work outfit:

Interesting that structured layers in clothing visually reduce (ie you’ll never know I’m perplexed at sneaky fat regions! Well, except, now you do…), but structured layers in mountain ranges visually reveal an inkling of vastness.

Closer Still - Mission Mountains, Montana

Just peer a little closer in to the snow dusting on some of yesterday’s Mission Mountain tops...

Freshly Snow-Capped - Mission Mountains, Montana

Just as suspected: Clouds from valley rain this weekend kissed the Mission mountaintops with fall snow. First fruits of full winter glory...

Stormy Sunlight - Mission Mountains, Polson, Montana

Stormy sunlight highlights the Mission Mountains - mm-mmmmm! (And a double dose over Polson Bay!)

Mountain Shadows - Mission Mountains Near Arlee, Montana

Mission Mountain views - or those of any of Montana’s mountain ranges - never get old. Just when you think you have a level of familiarity, shifting sunbeams and shading clouds reveal layers and canyons previously unnoticed. It’s like a whole new view with any change in timing or weather. 

Reflecting Experience Mission Mountains Near St. Ignatius, Montana

“We do not learn from experience... we learn from reflecting on experience.” -

Spring Change - Mission Mountains, St. Ignatius, Montana

“Change is like heaven — everybody wants to go there but no one wants to die. “

- Joel Peterson, Chairman, Jet Blue Airways, in article found here

Mission Mountain Peek - Near Perma, Montana

Spring is greening Montana's hilltops, but a dramatic peek-a-boo driving view off Hwy. 200 near Perma, Montana, provoked me to pull over and drink in a little more of the glorious Mission Mountain-tops still sporting their stark snowcap. (The camera lens doesn't do it justice.)

Mission Mountain Layers - St. Ignatius, Montana

"He unrolled the Bartram and held it to the yellow light and riffled through the pages until his eyes fell on a passage that caught his attention. It was this: 

    The mountainous wilderness which I had lately traversed appeared regularly undulated as the great ocean aftee a tempest; the undulations gradually depressing, yet perfectly regular, as the squama of fish, or imbrications of tile on a roof: the nearest ground to me of a perfect full green; next more glaucous; and lastly almost blue as the ether with which the most distant curve of the horizon seemed to be blended. My imagination thus wholly engaged in the contemplation of this magnificent landscape, infinitely varied, and without bound, I was almost insensible or regardless of the charming objects more within my reach.

A picture of the land Bartram detailed leapt dimensional into Inman's mind. Mountains and valleys on and on forever."  

- From Cold Mountain, P 276, by Charles Frazier

Mountain View-Through - St. Ignatius, Montana

"We see the world through the lens of all our experiences; that is a fundamental part of the human condition." -Madeleine M. Kunin

Mission Mountain Majesty - St. Ignatius, Montana

Each and every trip north toward Flathead Lake, I wait for it. Anticipation builds through the ascending curve that is the last hill south of St. Ignatius, Montana. And I am ever rewarded with another 'first' breath-stealing sighting - the Mission Mountains launch themselves skyward, instantly, incessantly demanding awed attention over every other surrounding scenic view. 

This February's warmer weather shows them in full winter glory, contrasting against a  bare and tentatively greening valley floor.