A couple of years ago, in an attempt to clear my head and basically go off the grid, I decided that I would make the trip out west to take in the majesty of the Northern Rocky Mountains. West Glacier was calling....and so I went.
At the last minute, I decided to take my youngest son Adam along with me. My thoughts were of how wonderful it would have been for myself at 11 years old to be part of such an experience. Therefore, not only did I look forward to taking the mountains in for myself, but to also enjoy spending some quality time with my son in such a magical place.
We hitched a ride via "small plane" into a little town called Kalispel. It was late in the day, so from there, we pointed our car toward our hotel. We checked in and walked across the street to have an oven-fired pizza. Everything tastes better when you're on vacation...We turned in early in anticipation of the following day.
The drive to West Glacier was slow...not for bad weather, construction or traffic, but for the view that can only be described as breathtaking. The early fog had cleared by mid morning making way for the appearance of snow covered mountain ranges for as far as the eye could see. Literally the longest, greenest pastures speckled with tiny black dots of random black angus cattle made their way to the base of the grandest peaks beyond your imagination. Honestly, I fought back some tears....happy tears of course.
We stopped at the entrance of West Glacier National Park to have a late morning breakfast as well as our first taste of Montana's famed huckleberry ice cream. Like I said, everything tastes better when you're on vacation. We whined our way through Apgar Village making a few brief gift shop stops here and there. This was the epitome of a small mountain town. I personally had and never have seen anything like it. Much like the pages of a great book, this village took me back to a simpler time and already, I was feeling the anxiety of knowing that in a few days, I would be leaving this all behind to return to another little place called "Reality".
What happened next would be a defining "Magic Moment" in my life. To this day, I still tell this story and am sure that I always will.
I have to preface it first by saying that over the next few days, we enjoyed, Whitefish, Flathead Lake, Big Fork, Hungry Horse, the Blackfeet Indian Reservation and every river, mountain and rock ledge in between. It was the best....
But on this day, we headed about 200 yards beyond Apgar Village toward Lake McDonald.
Lake McDonald sits in the McDonald Valley flanked by the Continental Divide and is best viewed by gazing across it toward it's spectacular backdrop known as the Lewis Range (pictured above) Truly the only thing missing is a choir....
We parked the car and hiked the rest of the way to a beach area that was busseling with kayak and pontoon rentals. Adam and I headed straight for the long pier that jutted out over the glassy water. We walked silently to the end and just stood there to take it all in...it got very quiet. Somewhere in the brisk mountain air, I heard the silence crack with a sigh and a deep breath. I look down to my right in time to see my sons glazed-over eyes fixated and his body literally motionless. At 11 years old, he was breathless....
I have a sign in my house that reads:
Life is not measured by the number of breathes you take,
But by the moments that take your breath away....
I as well, was breathless. Breathless at the majestic view before me and breathless at a moment that I shared with my son on that pier, in a place called Lake McDonald in West Glacier, Montana in the middle of an incredible imaginary place called "Nowhere...".
You have an innate appreciation of natural wonders. Never let it go.
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