One Road In - Tally Lake, Near Whitefish, Montana

“[He] drove the threads of back roads and gravel lanes that knitted the farms and hamlets of Black Earth County together in a loose fabric of commerce and community. “ -The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger , p 103 (Lg Type)

—Click here for more about Tally Lake in Western Montana—-

Riverside Tall Grass - Hamilton, Montana

“He taught me to pay attention ….[to the] beauty of it all. The way the earth smells wet and raw when it's first turned in the spring or after a summer rain.

How the wind bends a field of tall grass into a moving sea. The creak and moan of trees, like they're talking to one another, or to us if we listen.”

-The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger, p 456 (Lg Type)

Dreamy Spring Evening Glow - Missoula, Montana

“…in this old man's vast enjoyment of a simple moment, Stephen felt an easing of the tightness in his chest. He breathed, closed his eyes, and like Meloux lifted his face to the warm sun.

"That is all of life," the old Mide said quietly…”Letting go of the questions. Letting go of the fear that there will be no answers…What we believe we want is like knocking on a closed door.

Better to open ourselves to what we have and what we know. The beauty of this moment." “

-Henry Meloux, in Desolation Mountain, by William Kent Krueger,  p. 61

Looking Into - Ice & Stone 5 on Rattlesnake Creek, Greenough Park, Missoula, Montana

"Sometimes a man walks into the night and does not understand why he cannot see. He blames himself for the dark he is in.” 

- Henry Meloux in Manitou Canyon, p.107, by William Kent Krueger

Water Lilies & Holiness - Placid Lake, Montana

“I think what people build can be very beautiful, but what God builds goes beyond beauty. 

You stand outside Notre Dame, say, and you marvel at the accomplishment, but you can't really connect. It's artificial, do you see? It's only a representation of something. Spirit, holiness, maybe even God. But it's not the thing itself. 
Out here, it's all there before you, around you. You're steeped in it, the real thing. Spirit. Holiness. God."
- Maria to young Henry Meloux in Thunder Bay, p. 127, by William Kent Krueger (Book #7 of Cork O'Connor Mystery Series)

Shine Through - Blue Creek Lodge, Heron, Montana

“I’ve always thought of her the way I think of a precious gem: The beauty isn’t in the jewel itself but in the way the light shines through it.”  -from This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger

Smoky Sunrise Bloom - Big Arm, Montana

“But I believe if you tell a story, it's like sending a nightingale into the air with the hope that its song will never be forgotten .”

-from This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger, page 443

Wild Rose Bloom - Lee Metcalf Wildlife Refuge, Stevensville, Montana

“In every good tale there is a seed of truth, and from that seed a lovely story grows. Some of what I've told you is true and some ... well , let's just call it the bloom on the rosebush.”

-from This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger, page 444

Open To Imagine - Bitterroot Valley, Corvallis, Montana

“Yet are these things more difficult to accept than that all of existence came out of a single, random moment when cosmic gases exploded? Our eyes perceive so dimly, and our brains are so easily confused. Far better, I believe, to be like children and open ourselves to every beautiful possibility, for there is nothing our hearts can imagine that is not so .”

-from This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger, page 444

(Big thanks to Sissie #3 for this glorious walking scenery shot!)

Gibbon Falls - Yellowstone National Park

"Rainy hugged her and said, 'Love is the only river I know whose current flows both ways.' " 

- William Kent Krueger, Northwest Angle, p. 272

(Unlike this roaring one-way segment of the Gibbon River cascading over Gibbon Falls in Yellowstone National Park.)