Glacier Park Magazine (yes, this is a plug)

I attended a presentation this afternoon at the Montana House (a gift shop that showcases works from many different artists) given by Chris Peterson. He is a photojournalist and the editor of Glacier Park Magazine. Locally he shoots photos for the Hungry Horse News, and he has freelanced for the New York Times and National Geographic (I'm impressed!). He lives in Columbia Falls, MT which is just a short drive from the West Glacier Park entrance.

The presentation was about his 100 mile hike (which he says was actually 111.5 miles, but who's counting) through Glacier Park last year to celebrate and commemorate Glacier Park's Centennial. I checked on a lot of web sites, but could not find a picture of Chris. So imagine a better looking Ray Ramono with the same sense of humor -- and that's Chris Peterson.

It was great fun listening to Chris talk about his adventure, his lack of a shower (and how that could make him smell), and because of the heightened sense of smell you develop in the wild, how he can smell a person who has taken a shower long before he can see them.

And the photography was amazing.....absolutely beautiful pictures. The full story of the hike and pictures is in a special issue of Glacier Park Magazine (which you can purchase by itself, or get it along with a subscription to the magazine -- 4 issues a year with no advertising).

On the magazine web site , he has put a few of the pictures from the hike, and you should see picture #19 of the set -- a black bear swimming across the lake comes face to face with a bull moose doing the same. As Chris said, it's something even people who hike back country would be unlikely to ever see. And if he died tomorrow, he would die a happy man.

In 2009, Chris did a photo journal called 100 Days in Glacier National Park in which he took a photo a day for 100 days (this is different from the 100 mike hike). You can find this journal on the site for the Glacier Park Magazine, along with a great blog (Glacier Park Blog) that he writes. Here is the link for the photo journal.

If you love photography, if you love the beautiful of the outdoors with mountains and lakes, if you love wildlife -- you will want to take a look. A suggestion would be to go to the bottom and start with Day 1. I've made it through Day 33, and definitely plan to read and view the rest.