Montana Covid Winter

A summer cabin near Henry’s Lake, Idaho

Southwestern Montana is an area of extremes, winters so cold you stop noting the negative on temperatures and high desert summers that scald and desiccate. It is humbling to witness wildlife and plant life that can survive both -40 and high 90s. But if you are willing to embrace these extremes it is one of the most beautiful places in the world..

The Gallatin River carves a route north from the Yellowstone National Park up to the Bozeman Four Corner’s Area, and the road follows the channel carved long ago through the mountains

Year after year I return because of these extremes, which challenge and open you up. The snow and skiing are some of the best in the world, dreamy and challenging in turns. But I have come to enjoy the quiet moments on the trail or moonlight skins even more. You feel as humans should, but rarely do these days. Small and a part of a larger ecosystem, which we live within, not above. This humbling feeling is a gift as it rebalances. There is peace in being a small part of something much bigger and more important.

Montana snow, called cold smoke, is generally light tiny flakes due to the intense cold, but this was a warmer day with large feather like flakes

Many people have been drawn to the appeal of southwestern Montana in the last 5 years and every season I return I am saddened to see development expanding at a rate which is both shocking and unwise. We are threatening the very beauty which has drawn us to the region. There are smart manners of development and controls but I am not sure any of this is being applied, and each year droughts and fire seasons increase, while the population grows putting more pressure on the wild spaces. Wild spaces which I have been learning over the last 15 years are far smaller than they seem and debatably adequate for the wildlife we value so much. And of course we do have an enormous impact on these spaces, damaging them in so many ways direct and indirectly. It is a heartbreaking kind of love.

The summit of Big Sky’s Lone Mountain Peak illuminated by a setting full moon and the rising sun, seen from Andesite Mountain

Aspen trees in southwest Montana in a deep snow

But if loving something means you want to protect it, I hope the population boom will bring attention to the conservation issues and people who come because they love the wild spaces will help protect them for future generations. These extraordinary places are too beautiful and sacred to do anything less.

A favorite subject in southwest Montana, perhaps an endangered whitebark pine