Vacation Montana!
A Montana Spring
Stereotypical
images
Burden the Spring season
Freshness, newness, emergence
- New life -
Burgeoning meadows, opening flowers
Are typical descriptions of Spring
That have all lost their meaning
...Except in Montana...
Where Spring is real
Montana & Spring
Were made for each other
Montana is a wild, vibrant ecosystem
Of endless sky to infinite horizons
Of momentous clouds as tall as the mountains
Of blinding starlight that touches your soul
Of ranges that make Man feel small
Of ever-changing landscapes
That only seem out of control
Animals of such abundance and variety
Suddenly enlivened by winter's demise
Out in the open
Oft-viewed by human eyes
No longer seeming the least bit shy
Marching on their land
For food
And each other
Seek to fatten thinned out hides
And satisfy natural desires
From the small, delicate, and highly skilled
To the huge and muscled
Proud and vicious
And all of such independence
Spring is when the animals
Make their presence most directly felt
Journeying out
From wooded abodes
Compelling us to stop and watch
With child-like, wide-eyed delight
Rivers expanding into raging torrents
Fed by snowmelt from mountain headwaters
Cascading into valleys
Crashing into lakes
Stirring fish into mating dances
Providing Grizzly with meals to eat
Snatching salmon into flesh-ripping teeth
Wildflowers ambivalently emerge from cover
Petals begin to unfurl
Slowly, torturedly
Wrinkled
Like a leathery cloth
One...then another...then another
Straighten out
Vigilant at first for any winter cold
Confident at last with the feel of a warming sun
Carpet into expansive meadows
Of colored patterns
Greening mountains
Ever taller and more grand
Meet reminders of a season past
Snowlines scamper in retreat
As green melts white
In the warming heat
Rain falls
On a receptive ground
Happily freed from an incessant cover
Watery dabs
Into a softening earth
Like so many touches from tiny fingers
Leave an impression
Replaced by another
All in quickly varied succession
Early life
Of plants, shrubs, and flowers
Just under the ground
Eager to be watered
Make a sudden appearance
Turning browned soil
Into earth exploding with color
Rain in Montana is not just wet
It's how Nature
Becomes a matchhead
Setting Spring on fire
Spirit
John Denver
-- Into Spring --
"Click just once"
Playtime 3:36
Quivering
body of a fawn
Lightly, watchfully
Steps into the unknown
Glistening eyes of a cub
Full of curious, mischevious looks
Shaggy gray coat of a duckling
One in a long row
Quacking, quacking, quacking
Feel of a cold spray from a river come alive
On the face, in the eyes
All the signs of new life
Of Nature bubbling over
Permeate the air
Overwhelm the senses
Startling, pulling
You back to life
In most
places of this world
People have taken over
Have control day to day
Only now and then does Nature have its say
In Montana, though
Man lives within the confines of Nature
Life proceeds according to its rhythms and movements
...And limits...
Everything is put back into its natural perspective
People and their creations are dwarfed here
Compared to a much bigger living picture
With Nature painting in insane ways
Constantly, dynamically
But always a method to its madness
That is why Spring really
happens in Montana
Because Spring happens wherever Nature happens
And Nature really happens here
Some activities are just naturally suited
for a Montana Spring
Ballooning
Bicycling
Mountain Biking
Horseback Riding
Mild Spring temperatures are ideal for vigorous
activities such as hiking, biking, and horseback riding
Wildlife viewing
Prime Spring days are through the month of May
Temperatures are typically mild, with some
rain
Daytime temperatures average 68 degrees
Nighttime temperatures average 41 degrees
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