Tuesday

God's Country.

I was fortunate to be able to grow up in the great state of Montana, aka God's Country. Breath taking views of the Mission Mountains, beautiful lakes, and the friendliest people around. I was raised in central Montana where the land is pretty baren besides the fields and fields of golden wheat and the occasional butte popping up from the flatness of the land. It is it's own kind of beauty.

Western Montana is where it's at...Mission mountains, Glacier National Park, Flathead lake, & luscious green valleys. This is the area where all the famous people come to vacation. I saw Bill Murray (from groundhog day), a soap opera stud (name unknown), and I believe the dude from 3rd Rock from the Sun owns part of the main ski resort called Big Mountain. It's the land of escape from the busy life; a place to take in the glory of God's creations, a place to calm the soul. Every time I visit this area, I feel such a calmness and peacefulness in every crevice of my being.

This past week, I excitedly drove right smack in the middle of it all. My brother and sister in law just had their new baby and I was blessed to be able to visit and take pictures of their biggest blessing. (coming soon!) What a beautiful area they live in...an open view of the mountains of Glacier Park out their back door, and a hop skip and a jump away from Flathead Lake.



This is Flathead Lake at the very northern tip. This is where the kids and I played and swam last year while we were visiting, minus the snow.


One of many boat docks sitting on the shores as you make your drive along the Lake. The Mission Mountains on the other side.


My feeble attempt at creating a panorama. I like seeing the different sections that make up the whole.

Random photos taken on my drive. It was awesome to be able to take my time and just enjoy the beauty of everything.




Between my high school and college years, I was fortunate enough to work right in the Mission Mountains on a guest ranch. I helped do everything from helping cook the meals to helping guide the city slickers on horseback rides to picking up hay bales. What an awesome experience it was. Growing up, I always wanted to have horses and live on a ranch so this job was perfect. Labor intensive and I loved it. Welcome to Cheff Guest Ranch.

This is the dead end road that leads right up to the ranch nestled right at the foot of the mountains. You can see the clearing where the Ranch sits at the end of the road.

My other pano. The big gully to the right holds a humongous lake where we'd take the guests on horseback rides. On our time off, we'd ride there and swim with the horses.


I found a road named after us...o.k., so it wasn't named after us, but it was still cool to see it.

Here's looking down Olsen Road. My self pic of the trip where my car is me. :)
This specific intersection where the dirt road hits the 2 lane highway was very interesting. A ritual maybe? but about 50 smashed pop cans scattered in a 15 foot radius were just laying there....like artwork really. Nowhere else were there any visible pop cans but just at this small area on this road. These were smashed to as thin as they could go being run over again and again. If I had an empty pop can with me, I would have left my contribution to this interesting arrangement of cans.

What an awesome trip I had. Posts of my new niece coming soon! ...and some more sexy...I'm bringing it back baby. :)

5 comments:

Tyra said...

Beautiful.......

Boybarian Dad said...

I absolutely love these, it is definitely beautiful there. Nice job. Now if you don't want the sectioned panos, go read the tutorial at my friends blog that taught me how to piece these together quite well in photoshop: http://fxmixer.blogspot.com/2009/02/shootin-wide.html

So is that the ranch where i need to go do my cattle drive at? You know I am very serious about the cattle drive.

Nice post.

Allyson said...

I love your style. Boybarian dad has told me about you and I'm just making it over here. I can't wait to see more.

Khristina said...

I absolutely love this set of photos, Jen! You are a wonderful photographer. It was a pleasure working with you and I loved seeing you again! These are beautiful...WELL DONE!

Bree said...

Love them ALL! And I love panaromas done like that. It's fun and funky... LUV it! Anyways, love what you've done with your blog & i can't wait to see more.