Wild Places

  • Montana’s 5 Worst Winters

    By Phil Knight
    Montana is infamous for its extremes of terrain and weather. Snowstorms can howl across this state like packs of white wolves, screaming through the streets, burying cars and stranding drivers in white-out conditions. Roads become glazed with ice and ground blizzards destroy visibility.
  • Glacier in Winter: A Great Escape

    By Kay Bjork
    Winter is a most elegant time in Glacier Park with a landscape that appears donned with feathers, furs and jewels. On a sunny day evergreen trees appear to be cloaked in white sequins and frost forms a delicate lace on bony branches.
  • The Descent into Bighorn Cavern

    By Scott Sery
    Rappelling in, you arrive in a large room named the Cloak Room. It is here that you shed your climbing gear; it won’t be needed until you ascend back up the rope to your above-ground home. From here you have fourteen miles of known passages that twist, turn, split, dead-end, and squeeze under rocks to explore.
  • Skating on Swan Lake

    By Kay Bjork
    Skating on wild ice is truly a spiritual experience. The sensation of gliding along a frozen lake can be like flying. An experience that is surreal, exhilarating, uplifting and at times—frightening. 
  • Montana’s Wild Heart: The Rocky Mountain Front

    By Bill Cunningham
    Two centuries ago when Lewis and Clark explored the vast land we now call Montana, they encountered a wilderness of some 93 million acres. Today, less than a tenth of this land remains wild and undisturbed.
  • When Yellowstone Erupts!

    By Joseph Shelton, with graphics by Rob Rath
    The blast is unthinkable, impossible to understand in human terms. Still, there are some who are far enough away that they have a moment to try. They can see a flash that overtakes the horizon, and then for a moment, they see a black streak rising into space. The scale of it is enormous beyond reckoning.
  • The Crazy Mountains: Montana’s Less-Heralded Alternative to the Tetons

    By Doug Schmittou, with photos by Robert Schmittou
    Encompassing an area roughly 30 by 15 miles in size, the Crazies are Montana’s most impressive island range. With 23 summits that exceed 10,000 feet in elevation, the highest of which is Crazy Peak (11,214 feet), the Crazies also are Montana’s third-highest mountain range.
  • Life During Wartime at the Charter Oak Mine

    By Carl Davis
    The crucial role of the Anaconda Copper Mining Company and other big mining enterprises in World War II materials production is widely appreciated. Less so is the contribution of Montana’s many small-scale mine operations.
  • Travelers' Rest: A Study in Precision on the Lewis and Clark Trail

    By Lindsay Tran
    The team also found several artifacts that could be attributed to the Corps, including a blue bead, melted lead, and a tombac (metal) button. Most interestingly, the latrines they uncovered contained a not insignificant amount of mercury, a dead giveaway that the poop in the pit belonged to non-Native individuals.
  • Makoshika Park

    By Scott Serry
    Sixty-six million years ago the earth was going through a transition. The climate was changing, and Montana was shifting from a sub-tropical to a more arid environment.
  • Larch Madness: Fall-Foliage Destinations in Northwestern Montana

    By Douglas A. Schmittou
    At peak color, the contrast between their foliage and dark green coniferous forests, set against the backdrop of Montana’s majestic mountains and brilliant blue skies, is absolutely breathtaking, surpassing anything that New England can offer.
  • Trapper's Tales: Early Stories From Yellowstone

    By Doug Stevens
    Like Colter before him, the more seasoned trappers did not believe him. For the “greenhorns,” new to the wonders of the American West, he laid it on thick. Believed or not, he surely would have had a captive audience around the fire. 
  • Brilliance and Beauty: Celebrating the Gift of a Blackfoot Map

    By Dr. Shane Doyle
    Stretching from Oregon to North Dakota, and from Alberta to central Wyoming, the map identifies 14 major tributaries of the Missouri River, from the Milk River in the north to the Bighorn River in the south, and includes the location of prominent island mountain ranges interspersed between the rivers.
  • Alone at Many Glacier: Being a Winterkeeper at One of Montana’s Least Accessible Hotels

    By Amy Grisak, with photos by David and Rebeccah Wilson
    It’s practically impossible to mention a winterkeeper’s position without thinking of The Shining, but aside from the wind sounding like people singing down the halls of the grand old hotel, David assures us it is far more grounded. Barely skipping a beat from his summer work, he had plenty to accomplish when the guests were gone.
  • Seeking Solitude Along the Continental Divide Trail

    By Hallie Zolynski
    I spent time recently on a couple of sections of the CDT, finding out what makes this trail unique and why thru-hikers say this trail is by far one of the hardest to hike out of any of the long-distance trails in the U.S.
  • Indian Summer - Montana Style

    By Doug Stevens
    Take crisp, cool mornings and sunny, warm days – mix in a little early snow high in the mountains and add some beautiful fall foliage, elk bugling during their rut in the High Country, and you have a recipe for what many believe are the very finest days of the year to get out and enjoy what Montana has to offer.
  • Montana's Mysterious Rock Show

    By Holly Matkin
    They seemed oddly out-of-place in the landscape, as if they had been dumped out of the sky and onto the forest floor below. Their rusty color contrasted with the drab gray of the boulders lying outside the perimeter of the pile.