Elemental

The elements of nature combine in amazingly beautiful ways to create the mountains and valleys of Glacier National Park.

Once upon a time, this was the bottom of a sea. Sediments flowed down the rivers and emptied into the sea, falling to the bottom in layers. Nearby volcanoes occasionally poured lava into the sea, boiling water to steam and quickly cooling the lava into hard rock.  Tectonic plates collided with such force that the land buckled and rose.  When the world froze in ice ages, great glaciers carved out broad, U-shaped valleys as they flowed slowly, slowly downhill, carrying pieces of the mountains with them.

Today, rivers continue to carve those channels deeper and narrower, rushing and tumbling in whitewater rapids and waterfalls. The rivers are fed by the last of those ancient glaciers, and by each winter’s snowfall. Forests of pine trees blanket the lower slopes in green, and the wind wears away at the barren peaks, so high and cold that only the most determined little plants can grow there.

Even 16 years after this picture was taken (in the summer of 1995), Glacier Park stands out in my mind as one of the most beautiful places on earth.

I started calling this my “postcard picture” as soon as I saw it. Finally, more than a decade later, it is. It’s available as a postcard on Zazzle.

Elemental, 1995