There is not a single word in the english language that can describe Glacier National Park. A person’s senses are left reeling and overwhelmed with the sights, smells, sounds and feel of it’s presence. I personally crave the aroma of the ancient sylvan musk of crumbling wood from trees long since fallen, lying rotting on the forest floor, mixed with the thin, crisp alpine air of the surrounding mountain peaks covered in snow. The sights burned into my memories are of waters so clear that they look like liquid sapphires. Glacier is not a word…it’s an experience.
This particular day, a friend of mine and I made our way up to Avalanche Creek campground and the Walk-of-the-Cedars so I could check out the lighting for a proposed shoot there for the Ballerina project. We drove past Apgar and along the eastern edge of Lake McDonald as the sun was climbing in the morning sky. Because of fjord-like situation, the morning sun is blocked by the towering peaks surrounding the McDonald Creek valley. Rarely is this lake still. Most often it is churned by the relentless wrestling of unequal air temperatures of land and water. I’ve seen waves large enough for surfboards on this lake. Today was not one of those times.
