Winter In Glacier National Park

Sometimes you have to suffer for your art.

For me photography is art and on occasion I have had to suffer for it. Four years ago, I found myself curled up under an oversized comforter and a zero-degree rated sleeping bag on the pull-out shoulder of a lonely backroad to Glacier National Park in December.

I wanted to get an early start in the park, so I made the two hour drive over from Missoula the night before. The early bird gets the worm but also risks a little frostbite.

You can’t access much of Glacier when you’re there in the winter due to road closures backed up with mountains of snow. I was truly alone up there all day, but there were still some beautiful spots to capture despite the limited access.

I’m a bit of a pessimist when it comes to sunrise and sunset shoots. I don’t know if it’s Murphy’s Law or some voodoo curse I’m under, but when I intentionally go out to take golden hour photos, the sky is either completely empty or totally blown out. On this trip, it was overcast and blown out.

The beauty of Glacier National Park is undeniable, and the cold, cloudy weather wasn’t stopping me from having a great time and taking some memorable landscape photos. I’m far from feeling like my gallery for this park is complete, but it was a good start.