St Mary Falls

[Matt Tilghman]

This is why I love photography.

I love nature. Hiking, trekking, just being in it and soaking it in... it gives me such peace of mind, and is deeply mentally cleansing for me. It's the driving force behind some of my fondest memories. But over time the memories fade, just like anything else. Photography, for me, helps preserve the memories. I'm not talking about a photograph simply preserving a beautiful instant, which it does, but rather how it helps reawaken entire experiences.

I found this photograph a few days ago. It was taken in 2009, on a trip me and cousin took to Glacier National Park. On this day, we started the day with a sunrise hike up to Avalanche Lake, and ended the day with a dusk hike through Logan Pass to Hidden Lake. They were two of the most memorable hikes from that trip. But there was a third hike we did that day, in between the other two, that I had completely forgotten about until finding this photo. In the middle of the day, we hiked to St Mary Falls and Virginia Falls. Even though the hike was less memorable than the other two, this photograph reminded me not only the sights we saw, but also the conversations we had, like whining about how hungry we were, and the blisters our soggy shoes were giving us. It made me really happy, just to be able to re-experience a day well spent.

St Mary Falls

 

[terri]

aww...that's a wonderful memory! :heart: How wonderful to have such a pretty image to conjure it all up for you.

I was in Montana in 2008 and we only had a couple of hours to drive through Glacier National Park, which is NOT the way to see it. I like what you were able to do much better.

 

[Matt Tilghman]

Thank you terri!

 

[waiting]

Love the colours in the water, nice capture!

 

[RichieT]

Fantastic picture and I like your description of the outdoors. Years ago when I was doing more serious hikes, my outdoors camera was a Kodak 110. Even those pictures trigger memories to this day.