One End to the Other

Over the course of the last two weeks, I have traveled from one end of Montana to the other teaching continuing education classes.  During a normal winter, such travels will take you in and out of areas of snow.  Generally, some of the wide lower valleys or the open plains will be clear of snow.

Not so this year. 

This year, the entire state is buried under deep layers of snow.

Yesterday, that girl and I drove from Helena to Kalispell by way of Lincoln and the Swan Valley.  The walls of snow alongside the highway over Flesher Pass were anywhere from five to eight feet high.  Down through the Swan, most fence posts were buried to within a foot or so of their tops.  Homes alongside the road were hidden under white mounds.  I snapped a couple of “drive-by” photographs as we whisked along the narrow path cut through the Swan.  The photographs are not particularly handsome, but you can see by referencing the hood of the car and the signs alongside the road the depth of snow accumulations.

I found the entire drive beautiful.

-- Mitchell Hegman