Montana is “The Last Best Place” for good reason. There’s open space, big skies, and a sense of determined individuality and freedom. While many people dream about moving to Montana, the state’s population increase—about .8% annual growth-- is average for the United States. In 2012, Montana finally surpassed a million in population, with only Alaska and Wyoming having fewer people per square mile. There’s still only one area code (406) for the entire state while most major metropolitan cities have two.

If you move to Montana, chances are that you’ll land in Gallatin Valley, home to Bozeman and a vigorous 4.2% annual growth rate. Missoula, the Kalispell area, and Great Falls are also attracting high numbers of transplants. Urban areas in Montana are growing, while rural areas are declining. The state’s geography of rugged mountain ranges, lakes and wetlands, and national parks create barriers to large developments and help funnel people to the cities.

I moved to Montana 14 years ago and have never regretted the decision. When it comes to the basics elements of life, Montana is impossible to surpass. Here are my Top 5 Reasons why you should consider the move.

    Water: Look at a map of Montana and the rivers, streams, and creeks resemble the arteries, veins and capillaries of a human body. The state is alive with beautiful, clear water. Montana is the birth place of the Missouri River, the largest river system in North America. We enjoy hundreds of miles of Blue Ribbon rivers and streams, with countless small tributaries and numerous lakes. We fish, raft, kayak, canoe, float, and drink from these waters. They are home to water fowl and eagles, help irrigate our vast wheat fields, and quench the thirst of migrating animals. In the winter, our water begins as snow. Montana has 15 official ski areas, with Big Sky Resort boasting some of the top-ranked terrain in North America. There are more acres per skier than anywhere else in America. We cross country ski, snow shoe, and do other winter sports with pure joy. Over 80% of Montanans engage in outdoor activities, and our snow offers prime reasons to play.

    Air: Whenever I arrive back in Bozeman from a trip, I head out the airport doors and breathe. The air is crisp, fresh, my lungs expand and it just feels right. There is a sweet quality to it. Yes, we have altitude, with Bozeman just shy of 5,000 feet, so the air is thinner. We also have few businesses and industries that pollute the air. It is rare to see smog or haze. Rather, there is clarity that opens  vast views. Often the mountains are silhouetted with the immense sky and outlines seemingly drawn by a Disney artist rather than Montana nature. Sunsets and sunrises fire the heavens and set the snow-covered mountains alight with alpen glow of pinks, oranges, impossible purples. The sun has a brightness that shimmers in aspen leaves and ripples the rushing waters. On many a postcard-perfect day there is an aching blueness to the pure, clear sky.

    Earth: Montana means mountain in Spanish. There are a minimum of 100 named mountain ranges and sub ranges in the state. 30% of the land is owned by the public and 3.7% of this is protected wilderness. We enjoy wide swathes of open spaces due to 64% of the state being either farm or ranchland, and 65% of this land being used for pasture or to range cattle, our largest livestock crop. Wheat is our major crop—comprising over 25% of everything grown in the state-- and it is glorious when rippling golden on a late summer afternoon or just growing in green in the spring.

    Wildlife: Our air, water, and earth creates an ideal habitat for over 100 species of mammals. Major animal migrations occur throughout Montana, from mountain goats in Glacier National Park, to bison, bears, bighorn sheep, eagles, blue birds, and even pronghorns that head about 125 miles south each winter from Canada to reach their winter grounds in the Montana Missouri River Breaks. We have herds of elk, antelopes, many varieties of deer, and numerous critters appreciating the space they enjoy due to there being, on the average, only 6.8 people per square mile in Montana.

    Lifestyle: Everything comes down to how you spend your time. Montanans love the outdoors, year-round. We tend to be healthy, active, engaged. We know nature and appreciate its bounty and power. We give each other space and come together in times of need. We are generous people, involved in non-profits, caring for the planet, nurturing our wildlife, earth, air and water. Not everyone belongs here. And, that is a good thing. You’ll have to figure out for yourself if this is the place to call home. Come visit and check it out.

 Sally Uhlmann is a real estate agent and co-owner of SU Platinum Real Estate residing in Bozeman, Montana. Since 2003, my family and I have enjoyed life in Montana. Throughout my life, there are constants: loving my family, friends, and community, enjoying trekking to remote places in the world, being involved in non-profits, gardening, and always cooking. Most of my clients end up at my house, enjoying fine wine and dining on organic vegetables straight from the garden, eggs from our chickens, and sunsets that rival any in the world. In my opinion, there is no place better than Bozeman, Montana. 

Editing photos can be a potent de-stressor. And a great way to spend a hunker-down, stay-at-home Montana winter day or night.  Here are this year’s favorite photo apps that are both easy and fun to use. I’ve also added some extras for when you’re out in the field photographing. 

Apps allow you to be completely in charge of the feeling of a photograph. Pick one photo and edit it several different ways. It takes some practice to understand what each app can do for you but that’s part of the fun.

A perennial favorite with staff at Bozeman’s F-11 Photo & The Print Refinery is Snapseed. Actually, its my favorite too. Its a hoot to play with all the effects. I guess its like a full-fledged photo editing program but I wouldn’t know. I’ve never tried one of those. I do know that playing with an image and taking it through Snapseed’s adjustments is a surprisingly satisfying experience. 

Snapseed can now open both JPG and RAW files. You can use the “stack” to re-adjust edits later.  It has 26 tools and filters along with brushes for “spot” changes.  With so many options to explore, take the time to check out the “Insights” feature to learn tips and tricks otherwise you’ll under-enjoy this app. 

Want to remove an unwanted item from a photo? TouchRetouch makes it simple. You’ll be amazed at how easy it is to take out something like a power line or touch up a portrait. 

A favorite editing pastime of mine is playing in Glaze, an app that allows me to try out many different painting styles and even combine and randomize styles. F-11 Photo’s Kendall Roth uses Prisma (it’s free!). Brooke Welch recommends A Beautiful Mess. It’s packed with custom filters, fun fonts, and hand-drawn doodles. 

To combine several images in to a collage, LiPix makes it simple to combine photos with text and emojis.

When you create something that you really love, SAVE it. Back it up. The best way to save and back up is when its automatic, so consider iCloud, Drop Box or Box for solutions that just work. F-11 Photo’s Briana Bell says, “iCloud is inexpensive, simple, and an awesome way to share images between devices.”  

Ready to print? Using an app like F-11 Photo’s “Print and Share” makes that easy too. You can order prints and gift items from your couch.

Want a few great apps to help you get the shot you want?  Get these: 
 

1. Dark Sky offers up-to-the-minute forecasts for your exact location.

2. My Aurora Forecast helps you to succeed at seeing the Northern Lights.

3. Shooting film? myLightMeter allows you to use your iPhone as a reflected light meter.   

Jenna Caplette migrated from California to Montana in the early 1970s, first living on the Crow Indian reservation. A Healing Arts Practitioner, she owns Bozeman BodyTalk & Integrative Healthcare. For relaxation, she reads novels and walks the trails around Bozeman with her four legged companion. Oh, and sometimes she manages to sit down and write.

Big rivers are the home to many real and mythical creatures. Water is, after all, the source of all life. River riparian areas are veritable highways for wildlife of all kinds, and rivers spark the mind's imagination to conjure all manner of mythical beings.

Rivers undergo dramatic changes with the seasons. Spring brings flood, with water overflowing banks and seeking new levels, nourishing the ground with fresh soil for lush grasses and sustaining the towering cottonwood trees, and moving downfall to strand on gravel beaches and banks and create blockages which weave new channels. Summer’s lazy, placid waters calmly flow within main stems, pooling along banks to provide fish with deep, cool refuges, and feeding water to sloughs from underground. Autumn’s cold waters come alive with birds as they migrate along their corridors to their winter grounds. The most dramatic river changes come with winter’s temperatures rising above and falling below the magical freezing point, forming ice and sending clouds of fog into the air, only to freeze and form hoarfrost.  

Hoarfrost is, of course, the product of two winter river rascals: Jack Frost and his sidekick, the Frost Fairy. These creatures are more than mythical. While they themselves may be invisible, their presence and their handy work can be both seen and felt. Every winter these two spirited phantoms venture forth under the cover of night to turn an ordinary, but beautiful, world into an extraordinary, otherworldly and ephemeral vision of crystal. Last January, Jack seemed to be on a delusional high as he and his sidekick outdid themselves with magic.

Jack stayed at the river to play and do the heavy lifting, supplying the Frost Fairy with her pallet of crystals for her trips to the forest to adorn the trees. He magically levitated the warmer water molecules to hang effortlessly in the cold air, forming a thick mantle of fog to conceal his efforts and diffuse the warmth of the sun, thus preventing it from spoiling their fun. His organic brew infused the area with a musty, earthy, and heavy odor. Like a child in summer gleefully and casually skipping stones across the river's surface, Jack delighted in forming delicate and airy frost lily pads that he then randomly cast in the thick, yet still flowing, water.
 

The Frost Fairy did all of the delicate work. First she flitted among the cottonwood trees along the river's shore, painting their naked limbs and spindly twigs a sparkly white to starkly contrast with their dark bark. The dull grey sky seemed only to accentuate her talents. It was a scene of contradictions, with the feathery frosted trees reaching and reaching into a fog-laden and burdensome sky that was totally lacking in texture.
 

Moving up to an area we call the bench (because it is flat and overlooks the riparian forest), she proceeded to dress the ornamental trees, the buildings, and the fences, by painstakingly applying individual ice crystals to each and every needle of the pine trees, to the tiniest of the lilac twigs, coating every strand of wire along the fences, and turning ordinary ranch objects like gates and birdhouses into true works of art. She was meticulous and thorough in her duties, making sure that each crystal was unique, and delicately balancing crystal upon crystal to create cotton candy-like swirls on every tree branch. What an artist is she!

She clearly favored one lovely ponderosa pine situated on the bench offering a loverly view of the river corridor, near our wooden arbor with porch swing, picnic tables, and fire pits. She recognized it as a gathering place where she could parade her skills and show off her aesthetic sensibilities to all who might pass by. Every needle, every branch, every nook and corner of the tree was coated with layer after layer after layer of luminous sheets of tiny crystals.
 

It was her masterpiece. And, indeed, all who passed by took notice, stopping for a detailed inspection of her fine work, looking up and down to appreciate it from all angles.  She entrapped me in her spell-binding artistry as I stood for long moments breathing in the cold and viscous air that she and Jack had used to work their wonders. As with all things of great beauty, especially things that embrace all of the senses, mere photos do not do justice.

 

SuzAnne Miller is the owner of Dunrovin Ranch. A fourth-generation Montanan, SuzAnne grew up roaming the mountains and fishing the streams of western Montana. Her love of nature, animals, science, and education prompted her to create the world’s first cyber ranch where live web cameras bring Dunrovin’s wildlife and ranch life to internet users across the globe.

Visit SuzAnne live at www.DaysAtDunrovin.com!