North America Travel Tips - North America Travel Guide

I have been travelling America and Canada since I was 5 Years old (I am now 47). Until I was 18 these trips were most road trips with my grandparents and parents. Though these travels took me in every direction from my home in Little Falls , Minnesota...a majority of these vacations were west of the Mississippi River. I became aquainted with nearly all portions of the Rocky Mountains. But it wasn't until 1972, prior to attending that I saw the mountains of Glacier National Park. Along with a close friend, we spent a month hitchhiking, with our main destination Glacier. This trip changed my life dramatically. I had never hitchhiked more than a few miles up the road to see my girlfriend...and this trip would take across nearly 3,0000 miles of the Midwest and Rockies. We'd been advised that our (relatively) long hair would meet a 'Custerlike' end at the hands of Montana rednecks. However, we met so many friendly and generous people that this hithhiking way life would have a powerful influence on me for the next 8 years. In that time i probably hitchhiked a quarter million miles, and eventually added freight hopping to vagabond ways.

Most of these trips led me to Glacier Park, where, in '72 I also got my first experiences backpacking. When we initially rose into the mountains of Glacier in '72 (courtesy of a ride from a banker/artist from Toronto) I was moved by the spirit of such intense, gentle and harsh mountains...a geography of epiphany. I returned and returned...writing stories of my adventures, and printing photographs when returning to college in Minnesota.

In 1987 I began working seasonally on trail crews on the east side of Glacier...working 6 months per year, hiking an aveage of 800 miles a summer...this was our commute. I have spent winters here also...in East Glacier, Mt, as a volunteer ranger, since 1995. My experiences here would take weeks to unveil. I've seen countless Grizzly Bears at close/very close range. A most phenomenol animal is 'the Brother,' and I've seen most every other animal in this park at close range. The extremes in weather, in only 24 hours time,often still baffles me. The symphony of falling water in the Spring is hypnotizing, the wildflowers and other flora of this land;a unique ecosystem blending of eastern rainforest west of the Great Divide...the Blackfeet Reservation and its contoured prairie meeting the abrubt peaks and lakes east of the Divide.

In my trails job, as well as some video and still photo work, I've had countless experiences beyond day to day trails maintenance work. I've been involved in fighting forest fires, several search and rescues...have met, through trails or photography assignments, Ted Turner and Jane Fonda (had lunch with that duo high on the trai)l, Robin Williams, and photographed a hike to Grinnell Glacier by Vice President Al Gore 4 years ago. I've met hikers from across the world on these trails.

I've had some harsh experiences with work and weather, and was once assigned to videotape the remains of a hiker who was killed and consumed by three Grizzlies back in 1998, here in theTwo Medicine sub-district. That experience, coupled with a 14 day search for hiker the previous year...where no clues were found, and the same three bears became possible suspects in his circumstance (in retrospect) led to a very singular relationship I had with those Grizzlies over a 2 year period. It should be emphasized...that death, or even injury by Grizzly...a fear of many hikers, is extremely rare.

I near the end of my seasons in Glacier...at a crossroads, it is time to pay full time attention to my photography career. In a month I will be on the road photographing, as a new ranger takes over this home (goverrnment housing) I've loved since my stationing in this area of the park (1995). If there were a geology and ecology of my soul...I have been working and living in it...within and without. I shall be here one more month (and may return to the trail as fine art photographers are in need of some steady work, or independent wealth to maintain their expensive form of creative expression.

If/when you visit...allow as much time as possible. I've worked deep in the mountains for 15 years, hiking most every mile of trail in the park many times over...been coming here for nearly 30 years...and have barely begun to know the depth of this land. And I have become equally captivated by the Montana prairie...far from a boring flatland. Patience will reveal a prairie of unique and intriquing character. A different story.
Happy Trails.

North America General Tips

North America General Tips

Visiting North America?

Visiting North America?