My good friend and fellow photographer Luke Tingley and I were a bit surprised to find out when we arrived at Glacier National Park that the road up to Logan Pass was closed every night from 9:00 PM until 7:00 AM the next morning. This sent us scurrying to rearrange the detailed schedule we had made for ourselves.

We had planned to do quite a bit of sunrise and sunset shooting along the pass, but that was out of the question now except for the last two days of our trip. We were camping on the east side of the park in the town of Saint Mary. From our camp, it wasn’t too far to drive to either Two Medicine Lake or Swiftcurrent Lake. They are beautiful lakes with towering peaks that offer great reflections at sunrise in the right conditions. We had only planned for one sunrise shoot at each lake, but with the change of plans, we visited each twice.

The first morning at Swiftcurrent Lake was pretty much a bust. There was a light rain and the winds were howling out of the west. A reflection shot was definitely out of the question! The second morning the conditions were somewhat more favorable. At least it wasn’t raining. However, the winds were not blowing much less than before. With that in mind we headed for a spot we had shot at the night before. There was still a great view of Grinnell Point, but the lake was less of a part of the composition. We were happy to see that a few clouds were lingering on the horizon and also surprised that the nearly full moon was setting just to the side of the peak. As the first light hit the sides of the peaks, a cloud danced off to the side and took on a pink glow. It was a beautiful scene. While coming up with a title for this image, I kept thinking of how peaceful the scene looks. I however know different after standing out there getting battered by a relentless breeze…

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