Glacier National Park enticed 2.91 million visitors in 2022 to enter its wild and mythical landscape. When I first moved to Montana in the Spring of 2021, I lived a fews hours south of the West Glacier entrance. I visited the park on a crisp May day, and while the interior of the park remained closed, I did catch a glimpse of what it had to offer. Fast forward to April of 2023, when I decided to take a few days off to visit the East entrance of the park. Even though I knew the interior was once again closed due to winter conditions, I wanted what little of the park I knew I could access to myself. 

Winter in Big Sky, Montana, what can I say? Well for starters I hadn't even planned on staying for one when I arrived here in May of 2021. Greeted with snow on Memorial Day I thought to myself, "what have I gotten myself into?" Fast forward to 2023, and here I am just wrapping up my second winter. A winter filled with sub zero temperatures, 3am wakeup calls, and a massive amount of that thing they call snow

It's January the 13th, 2023, and for the past week or so my emotions have overtaken me. Like an avalanche cascading down the side of a mountain, grief, fear, and questions have come crashing down. It's a slide that swallows me up from time to time, but one in which I've learned to ride. 

Here you have a photograph that sums up my very long drive through the Peace Garden State of North Dakota. Oh yeah, that doing uncomfortable things, turns out it’s true after-all.

When people ask me where I'm from, I normally say the Jersey shore. The reaction I get is, "you don't look like the Jersey Shore!" Newsflash, those people don't represent where I originally come from.

Looking back, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't being stupid trying to capture this sunset over the lake photograph, but I felt close enough to safety, that I went for it anyways.