Snow in the Bears Paw

Timing can be everything in nature photography.  Being in the right location at the right time is a combination of planning and luck.  After, the fall colors and great sky of the last night of the season in Glacier I was east of the park on the prairies of north central Montana at the foot of the Bears Paw Mountains.  

I got to see fall colors along the Milk River and some as I explored the mountains too.  Then it snowed!

The first snow of the season happened and I was just able to get out long enough in fading light to make some images in the mountains.  I drove up into the range in a light snow that got heavier the higher I went.

As I climbed out of the prairies the road followed a stream through low treeless hills.  Then cottonwoods appeared along the stream and slowly pines begin to appear on the hillsides.  The hills got steeper and more wooded until I was in the deeper mountains where the hills had become small mountains and it was a thicker forest of pine and some aspen in color.

The snow was billowing in.

I was delighted to catch such a scene.  Seeing the first snow of the season on the golden aspen and in the lush pine forest was spectacular and I made the most of the brief time I had photographing until it was too dark to see.

As I made my way back down the mountain in the dark, I smiled knowing that I was lucky to be in the right place at the right time.