"Fortune and Glory" - Image Spotlight Release

“Get off the tracks at Belton Station (now West Glacier), and in a few minutes you will find yourself in the midst of what you are sure to say is the best care-killing scenery on the continent. Give a month at least to this precious reserve. The time will not be taken from the sum of your life. Instead of shortening, it will indefinitely lengthen it and make you truly immortal. Nevermore will time seem short or long, and cares will never again fall heavily on you, but gently and kindly as gifts from heaven.” - John Muir - Our National Parks, 1901

This has always been one of my favorite quotes on Glacier. It is also one of those things I sincerely hope to accomplish some year - giving at least a month at one continuous time to this precious reserve!

And a Happy Birthday to John Muir! He would be 184 today were he still out there… I think he’s still “out there,” don’t you?!😉

I wasn’t even going to be here that night. I had left Bowman Lake campground and was sitting back in West Glacier on midday of the day I was going to exit Glacier and begin the return journey home. I was on the phone with Anna, and as we were talking, I started thinking to myself - maybe one more day/night here…

I had woken up that morning to rain falling on my exposed hammock set up. Having not been expecting rain AT ALL, I did not not put my rain fly over! Oh well, a little soggy but no harm done in the long run.

As I was driving that morning back to West Glacier, the light and storms kept fighting back and forth, and ‘I just had a feeling I wanted to go with.’

Of my 4 visits to Glacier National Park, I have yet to hike the Highline Trail. This is one of the most popular hikes in the Park and one of those hikes that is consistently rated on all the top National Parks hike lists.

Basically, anytime I think about hiking or planning to hike the Highline on a certain day I am there, the trail is closed due to Grizzly activity. This had been the case on this adventure as well. But, the trail had opened back up a day or two before and I had the thought that maybe a mile or two out could provide a nice sunset opportunity.

I remind you that storms were moving in and out this entire day…

I was down to just 3 sheets of film (and I really wanted to try and save at least 1 for my plan to spend a night in Badlands National Park for the first time on my return journey home!)…

Despite being mid-late August, the weather conditions up on Logan Pass were quite brisk and very windy as early evening descended. I set out on the Highline and hiked roughly a mile and a half to where this vantage point lay before me. I decided this would be the spot and as I began breaking out my camera gear, I was watching a storm and bands of rain move from those distant mountains straight towards me. ‘Oh man, I am going to get hammered!’ I thought to myself. But behind the storm, through the veil of rain and mist I could see the sun softly illuminating everything… ‘Oh man, this could be epic!!!’ I now thought.

So, I got myself rain-geared up, set up the camera as rapidly as I could muster and got the little poncho I keep for it secured. As I was finishing this all up, it was upon me. The wind was whipping and it felt like little rain-icicles were pelting me, but I was too stoked by what was happening beyond me to really care! The golden illumination of everything off in the distance grew more and more intense and the storm passed over almost as rapidly as it had come upon me.

I freed the camera, got back to composing and metering in what seemed like a fury to not miss the opportune moment! I was ready. And just in the nick of time, for moments later, what you see below is what happened!!!

As I watched, waiting to hopefully capture the glory at its fullest, yet not miss the perfect moment, the clouds slowly broke apart and revealed the sun. Within seconds, the sun began its descent behind the mountain peak. Not only was every break in the sky glowing gold, but it was as if the mountain peak itself broke and shaped those heavenly rays of light just so, just for me…

I snapped the shutter, this was it. ‘Man I hope I didn’t botch that exposure!!!’ as within moments, it was gone. As the sun continued to set, the clouds began to glow orange, pink and purple as they do when conditions are oh so right. I decided to fire off an exposure of that as well and that was that. One sheet of film left for the Badlands.

I took in the total sunset experience and everything that had just occurred fully before I began packing up and continuing on my headlamp hike back to Logan Pass parking. The chill in the air seemed not to matter as I was so alive with what had just come to pass. I drove down Going-to-the-Sun Road and exited West Glacier to find an easy car camp pullout spot in the National Forest that night and awoke to begin my journey home the next morning.

As you might imagine, when I finally came to process this film, I was so excited and nervous as to find out if I got it or not…

This is one of my most insanely beautiful moments ever witnessed and I am so proud of the end result on film. This is a once in a lifetime moment and I had very little leeway to nail it as conditions were changing rapidly (AND I only had 3 sheets of film left!!!) but, nail it I did!

I didn’t even realize this at the time, but it just recently occurred to me that one of those peaks in this photograph might actually be Heaven’s Peak?! I got out my National Geographic Glacier National Park map and took a good gander… Eureka! It isn’t the peak where the sun is directly behind, but Heaven’s Peak is the left most mountain in the composition, where the tuft of clouds are resting upon the summit and the shaft of light is piercing underneath! Just kind of a neat little something extra if you ask me. :-)

Back up top to John Muir’s quote - “Nevermore will time seem short or long, and cares will never again fall heavily on you, but gently and kindly as gifts from heaven.”

In referral to my journal quote from yesterday’s post - talk about “fortune and glory of this blessed life!” I can never stop thinking that I wasn’t even going to be here this night. To quote Indiana Jones - “But why Dr. Jones?” - Shortround. “For Fortune and Glory kid, Fortune and Glory.” - Indiana. ;-)

Fortune and Glory indeed.

All my best,

Brandon

“Fortune and Glory” - Brandon Kline

“Fortune and Glory” - Brandon Kline

"This Blessed Life" - Image Spotlight Release

Happy National Parks Week folks! I hope you are all doing well and maybe getting out to enjoy a Park or more! Life here on my end is getting to be a crazy balancing act right now!!! Between my artwork, landscaping, my fiancé and dogs, family and friends and all the other things that make up my life currently, it’s a bit bonkers🤪😂 But, most importantly, all is good. So with this in mind, I have decided to interrupt my ‘Wilderness Solitude part 2, Isle Royale’ post until sometime in May, as I simply need more time to sort through pics, video and writings to properly put everything together for you. And what I have to share these next few days is more time sensitive, seeing as I want to have these remaining two image releases that I’ve been holding out on, as well as some other information, out to you before my art festival season officially kicks off in Lewisburg, PA on the rapidly approaching Saturday April 30th!

So, without further ado, here you go - one today, one tomorrow, both from one of my favorite places on Earth and my favorite National Park thus far…

“Far away in Northwestern Montana, hidden from view by clustering mountain-peaks, lies an unmapped corner - the Crown of the Continent.” - George Bird Grinnell - Century Magazine, 1901

August 20th, 2019, early in the evening, Glacier National Park -

“I think it’s time to go build a fire and convene with some of Glaciers’ Spirits. A long day lies ahead…” - from my journal

The photograph below is not an uncommon view to many who visit Glacier National Park. I certainly won’t say it’s easy to get here - from the Many Glacier Hotel/Camping/Parking area, you’ve got a 3+ mile hike gaining roughly 800 feet to stand at this view. If you haven’t been here - believe it or not, more and more extravagant beauty awaits you over another roughly 3.5 miles and 800 feet elevation gain to Upper Grinnell Lake and the end of the trail. (See “What Is Remembered” in my portfolio for just a sliver of what awaits you!)

But come mid-morning to early evening, this trail is one of the most popular and crowded in the Park! And deservedly so. I often wonder if I have ever seen as much awe-inspiring splendor in one 6.5 mile stretch as the Grinnell Complex offers?! And this viewpoint area has been high on my radar ever since I took that first hike up here in 2016 and captured “What Is Remembered.”

So, here’s the thing… to truly capture the best light on this scene and bask in all of it’s glory with some sense of solitude, you’ve got to get here by dawn. And that means, in high Summer anyway, starting your day in the ballpark of 3am, give or take a little.

Oh, and if you haven’t had the thought already, the real kicker is - that means you are hiking in the dark/pre-dawn, by yourself, for roughly 3 miles, an hour and a half, in some of the most prime Grizzly terrain Glacier has to offer! There are often trail closures in this area due to Grizzly activity and they SHOULD BE HEADED WITH THE UTMOST RESPECT!!!

This is no joke folks - people and bears for that matter, die, unfortunately. The first time I was here in the Many Glacier region (2016) I witnessed two young girls being reprimanded by a Park Ranger for disobeying a trail closure due to Grizzly activity. If I remember correctly a mountain biker in the previous weeks that year had suffered a fatal attack not too far from this area. DO NOT SHRUG OFF TRAIL CLOSURES, ESPECIALLY IN THESE CIRCUMSTANCES!!! And you SHOULD NOT BE HIKING WITHOUT CARRYING BEAR SPRAY!

There are two trails leading to where you start to climb the ridge line towards Grinnell Glacier, a North and a South shore. Both times I have been here one of those shores was closed. I obeyed the closures and followed the open trail.

Insane still, perhaps. The inherent risk is always at hand. I don’t write or tell about these things as a boast of bravery or that others should do the same. All I can say is that I know full well what I am getting myself into when I set out and I do my best to be cognizant and practice the smartest behavior under the given circumstances.

Why am I going on about this? - because I am NOT trying to blindly lead anyone to follow in my footsteps, haphazardly thinking it is totally safe. Always be Bear Aware out here! And not just for you, but for the bears’ sake as well! These are magnificent creatures that need our help and protection to thrive! The less negative interactions between us both, the better!

Despite the inherent risks, however, there lies the inherent beauty of this ‘Crown of the Continent.’ It often isn’t easy or 100% safe, but can I outweigh the risk with the reward is what I ask myself in such a situation?

You’ll often hear adventurers of all types say something to the affect of ‘I just had a good feeling about it.’ As crazy as it may seem, I feel these “feelings” have merit. If something seems off, maybe you should listen to that. If it feels right, go for it! Sometimes you just have to trust your gut and hope that it pays off, accepting there is no guarantee.

When I quoted my journal earlier talking about ‘convening with the Spirits of Glacier’ - that is a very real thing to me. Whatever you want to call it, this place has an ancient Spirit. And by feeling that, I feel safer in my journeys here.

All this being said, this morning turned out to be smooth seas, fortunately. To my surprise, I wasn’t even the only pre-dawn hiker as another guy pulled into the parking area right when I did and we set off on the trail almost together. He quickly passed me though with his lightweight day/hydration pack just out to beat the morning rush against me in my “lightweight” 50 pound only camera gear and a few essentials “daypack.”😂

It is almost impossible to put into words the full glory of the scenery here, and that lack of words, thoughts even that you can comprehend, speaks volumes of how special this place is. So, I’ll just let my journal entry take you out…

August 21st, 2019, gazing out upon early morning on Lower Grinnell Lake, Angel Wing, Mount Gould, the Salamander and waterfalls - all part of the Garden Wall, Glacier National Park -

“Wow…

That about sums it up.

This morning began at 3:30am, making coffee by moonlight at my Cut Bank campsite and driving over here to Many Glacier. I began hiking by the soft glow of pre-dawn light through the forest along the shores of Swiftcurrent and Josephine Lakes. Very early on, a movement in the forest and a couple sets of eyes accompanied by large silhouetted bodies met my headlamp… Bears, deer??!

Although I began hiking almost an hour later than I had wanted, it proved not to matter in terms of the light I had been hoping for, as the sun angle now in later August takes a while to rise up over the mountains. Late July I think would be ideal for catching when the sun perfectly rises in the valley between peaks and would bask the scene with its first golden glow!

Nonetheless, the colors and light upon these lakes, forests, and granite peaks I witnessed this morning were nothing short of spellbinding.

And here I have sat for a while now, so peaceful and serene, soaking in the fortune and glory of this blessed life!”

All my best,

Brandon

“This Blessed Life” - Brandon Kline

“This Blessed Life” - Brandon Kline

"When the Storm Lifts" - Image Spotlight Release

Greetings everyone, I’m enjoying a lovely March snowfall here in central/northeastern PA at the moment and just wanted to note a couple things here before getting into the story behind this image…

One - I keep meaning to say that anyone who is browsing this blog via email and may have trouble with the readability of the layout - I urge you to click the on the title, which is highlighted in blue, or to click any of the other links which take you directly to the blog page on my website. I say this because I myself don’t particularly like how Mailchimp “translates/displays” my Squarespace design onto the emails. The layout on the website is how I want it to look and is much more pleasing to the eye shall we say. I may at some point decide to just convert to Squarespace for my email campaign (that was not an option yet when I initially set this all up). At least for the immediate future though, I’m letting things be with Mailchimp. If anyone has any strong feelings one way or the other, please feel free to let me know as I will definitely take input into consideration. I, after all, want everyone to be enjoying these!

Two - Just forewarning you I have a bit of a blog blitz I’m lining up over the next month or so! I don’t like to be too intrusive to your email accounts, lol, I just have a decent amount I want to get out within the timeframe of late April. And I’m working on prepping as much as I can before the Spring landscaping season and then the hopeful Art Festival season start ramping up and life gets a little crazy! So for the next few weeks maybe expect up to 2 emails a week between new image releases and stories I have to share. Just figure I’m catching up on close to 2 years of silence ;-)

…So, this one I’ve had hidden in my pocket so to speak since Summer 2016. Man, that was quite a Summer…

I made my first cross-country road trip attempt in 2015, with many hiccups and fell short of actually getting technically “coast-to-coast.” In 2016 though, the stars aligned and along with embarking on the art festival scene, I made a successful voyage from PA to the coast of Olympic National Park and then returned home and up to Acadia National Park! Now that’s coast-to-coast, and back again or something of the sort, haha! All those details are for some other story though, what is important here is that somewhere in the middle of that journey were 10 amazing days in Glacier National Park.

If you’ve met me, and if you’re reading this chances are most of you have, you’ve probably heard me regal over my love for Glacier. I didn’t originally intend to spend 10 days there, it was going to be something like 5 days in Glacier, 5 in Mt. Rainier, and 5 in Olympic. Well, day after day after day 5 in Glacier, I would wake up and think, I could spend my day on the road to Rainier… or just stay here in Glacier… And so I did for double the time, leaving me with, if I remember correctly only 3 days for Rainier and then 2 for Olympic. Do I wish I had more time in those parks and do I intend to plan an adventure someday where I do - YES. Do I regret spending that extra time in Glacier - NO.

This was even my 3rd time to Glacier at that point, but if you’ve been there, then you have maybe felt the spirit I always refer to when I speak of this immaculate place. It does something to you, it does me anyway. I’m talking the kind of thing you feel in the essence of your soul. I have now been there 4 times and even though there are so many big Parks and wild places I haven’t been and long to see, I cannot wait to make it 5 and so on and so on. Being a Northeastern dweller, the thought of making a Western expedition without including Glacier is absolutely ludicrous!

Sorry, here I am just going on a tangent of love for a place…

The image at hand… the lesser explored region of Glacier is known as the North Fork. From West Glacier it is about a 2 hour drive on washboard dirt roads at about 25-30 mph way out into the deep forests of northwestern Montana. The lakes are still pristine and the mountains still soar but one thing I have not experienced there is the traffic jams of the Parks’ more popular destinations. I love those popular places too as they are justly so, but I also really love getting out to this more remote section where you can truly feel how detached you are from civilization.

In fact, one of my favorite backcountry campsites comes from out here. From the foot of Bowman Lake if one takes about as leisurely a 7.1 mile hike as one can in a place like Glacier, one will come to the camping area at the head of Bowman Lake. The entire hike is through a dense almost rainforesty setting along the western shores of the lake. The water is about as Caribbean blue as you can get in the right light and you see the peaks of Mt. Carter and Rainbow Mt. up ahead towering above to roughly 10,000 ft. When you reach the camping area right on this pristine body of water, Carter and Rainbow dominate your eastern field of view, where Northward lies this specimen - Thunderbird Mt. where within its chasms lie more of Glacier’s backpacking treasures…

I camped here with my brother on the culmination of a backpacking itinerary my first time here in 2013. I knew I had to go back. On this particular adventure, I had one of my scariest wildlife encounters. No, not a Grizzly. Although this region of the Park frequently has Grizzly sightings and warnings and several other campers I spoke to out at the head of the lake that evening said they had seen a bear crossing the trail earlier in the day. Mine was a skunk. Yes, a skunk! He/she seemed friendly enough at first sight but tormented me for the next couple miles of trail! You see, this little bugger did not want to get off the trail and most of this trail due to the sloping conditions on both sides does not make for easy just going around. So for over an hour he/she would bluff charge me and then run up ahead a little bit to where I felt safe hiking a little bit more and then back to charging me. I quite fortunately was able to keep enough distance to where it never felt the need to actually spray, but whew man, what a game of cat and mouse if you will! Being sprayed out here would be serious bad news in so many ways! Eventually the skunk would take off into the forest and let me get back to the hike at hand in peace… with only Grizzlies to worry about, haha!

I had a late night that night, sitting down on the lake shore, the moon above the ghostly mountain spires, I entranced and deeply inspired. The next day I slept late as it was raining and I was exhausted and honestly it just felt cozy and wonderful in my hammock. In the afternoon, I enjoyed conversation with a group of 3 young men who had just come down from Brown Pass, and had quite an amazing and safe Grizzly experience they were telling me about. As the day went on, they offered me to camp in their site area as opposed to having to hike back so late. At first I declined, wanting to keep to my itinerary and not alarm anyone. But I kept not moving and found myself down at the shore line sizing up the mountains through my view camera as the rain and misty fog blanketed the peaks, creating such wonderous conditions. As the sun (wherever it was out there) was beginning to go down, the storm also began to break. A couple shafts of light actually broke through briefly (which unfortunately I was not in the right position for), but prompted me to re-compose, during which another young man came out and began talking to me wondering if I was shooting for someone (like a publication or something) because of the large format gear. I explained I was an artist and this was “just for me.” He hung out while I finished composing and fired off a few exposures of the storm as it literally lifted off the mountians, dramatically revealing the peaks of Thunderbird! All of a sudden he goes “Look! Snow up on the peaks!” I said something like “oh yeah, wow!” As snow in the month of August, no matter what the elevation is a pretty neat concept! We both enjoyed a moment of giddiness and hoped that anyone camping up on the pass tonight was prepared for such conditions.

I did decide to take those new trail friends up on their offer and set up in their extra space for the night and have a safer hike out the next day. We all enjoyed a nice roaring campfire that night and some great conversation. Turns out the guy who came down and hung out with me during my photograph was/is a Glacier backpacking guide and had a group out with him. He enthralled me with stories of Winters spent in the Park and how wolves would hang out around the cabin. And funny enough, I would run into this guy again, a few years later with another group in another section of the Park…

My hike out the next day was much more laxed than it would have been the previous evening for sure and fortunately no alarms had been raised. Although it took me a few years to prioritize the scanning and printing of this image, I have often thought of this experience and photograph quite fondly and I’m happy to be presenting it. Just remember, when you find yourself out in the high country, rain where you might be standing may just be something a little purer hidden in the high peaks, only to be revealed when the storm lifts.

My best until next time,

Brandon

“When the Storm Lifts” - Brandon Kline

“When the Storm Lifts” - Brandon Kline