Alone in Glacier National Park

My fingers are freezing, enough that it’s getting difficult to push the shutter button on my camera. But I keep snapping photos because I feel like this is a once in a lifetime moment; it’s early morning, the lake is perfectly still and I am the only one walking the rocky shore.

It’s Halloween and Bryan and I are in Glacier National Park. It almost seems like we’re the only ones here. Once the park shuts down its major attractions for the winter season (and by winter I mean most of the year, considering the on season is only May-October) it’s only the courageous few that venture past the park gates. Today there isn’t even a ranger at the Visitor’s Center; apparently if I want to trick or treat it’s going to have to be with a moose.

With the park near empty, every photograph feels like it should be a postcard. No screaming children or retirees in gargantuan RVs to mess up my pictures, only my own limitations as a very amateur photographer. 

The magic of a National Park without the onslaught of destination-focused tourists is indescribable. With only two days it would have been hard to get into the backcountry, but somehow even only feet from the park road, silent Glacier NP feels like I’ve stepped far away from any signs of civilization. Beyond the wind in the trees and the ominous steps of a large animal in the dark of the night, the only sounds are the clicks of my shutter in an attempt to capture the essence of the moment.