Two Lanes, Two Wheels, and a Camera: Glacier National Park

It was a very interesting and somewhat painful ride…

I awoke to a clearing storm, and a bank of smoke from the wildfires a few miles away.

In 2017 I awoke in a cold, soggy tent alongside the lake in Saint Mary, Montana. It was my birthday, and it was — well — raining. I waited about an hour in wet jeans, and socks reading my Kindle and becoming even more excited for my ride through Glacier National Park on the Going to the Sun Road. I was going the descent route, east to west. I had just come from the Canadian Rockies where I had to bail on my Alaska goal due to the fires all over western Canada.

The rain stopped. I mean it just stopped in about 10 seconds. I stepped out to a very wet and muddy Montana morning with a tiny bit of sun starting to peek over the trees and the clouds rapidly dispersing.

That is something you see a lot at that altitude. Storms come in really fast and leave just as quickly. Silence, roar, and thunder, then silence again. Seemingly instantaneously.

There was a wonderful mist in the air that gave the mountains and lake a mystical and somewhat ethereal feeling. I got the Nikon out of the protected bag and ready in my carry bag.

Early in the morning, shooting north. There was blue sky and an amazing misty scene.

What a perfect day for photography, I thought.

I got dressed in dry clothes, had a decent breakfast at the only diner in town, dropped my bike in the parking lot — pulling my right arm nearly off my shoulder — and headed out to the high country of Glacier. Belly full, excited as hell, right arm nearly useless, but screaming loudly every time I tried to use it.

On a motorcycle.

On Going to the Sun Road.

I couldn’t do much with my right arm, but for some reason, it seemed to work fine on the bike, and thankfully for holding a camera at least to eye level. Putting on a jacket, strapping up my helmet, and trying to drink from a bottle of water… yeah, that hurt. A lot.

(“Stop whining” — ed)

Sorry. Anyway, after a few gorgeous miles along the lake, a strange brown cloud began mixing with the beautiful white mist of the recent storm. I soon realized it was smoke.

The smoke began making its presence known about an hour after I left Saint Mary.

Glacier National Park was on fire. The smoke eventually became so thick that the vistas were impossible to see, the air simply impenetrable. And although it was a terrible time to be there, I decided to go ahead and photograph it anyway.

It was this time, it was this place, and I was there.

And at that moment it was savage and a devastating fire was raging just a few miles from me.

I ended up with a dozen photographs that I really like from that trip. This is one of them from the view of Saint Mary Lake, early that morning. It was the first of the images and the smoke was just beginning to obliterate the lovely mist. A few miles later and the sky is way murkier, and visibility way less.

Eventually, the smoke and haze blended together to form a nearly impenetrable atmosphere. I kept on shooting because I believe that was what I was meant to do. It was real.

I do want to go back. Time is my foe, but I swear I will ride Going to the Sun Road again on my bike. The sheer excitement of that thin piece of asphalt going up, and up, and up is too glorious for a one-time adventure.

I went down the first time I rode it, and this time I want to simply climb into the sky (west to east) and do it with a shoulder that doesn’t scream every damned time I try to put my helmet on.

All photographs are by the author.
Images were taken on a Nikon Df and 24–85mm lens.

I am a photographer, designer, and photo editor. You can find me at my self-named website or at Project 52 Pro System where I teach commercial photography online. This is our tenth year of teaching, and it is the most unique online class you will find anywhere.

You can find my books on Amazon, and I have taught two classes at CREATIVELIVE.