Dirt Roads and River Eddies

Dirt Roads and River Eddies Photos and stories of western landscapes, special places, wildlife, and noteworthy subjects illustrating how we navigate this maze of a world.

If you’re not doing anything in two weeks, I’ll have photos on display Sept 22-24 at the Idaho State Museum during Treef...
09/08/2021

If you’re not doing anything in two weeks, I’ll have photos on display Sept 22-24 at the Idaho State Museum during Treefort music festival.

Mountain shadows.
03/05/2021

Mountain shadows.

The American Bison is the national mammal and also the largest mammal in North America. I took this photo a couple of da...
03/05/2021

The American Bison is the national mammal and also the largest mammal in North America. I took this photo a couple of days ago as a small herd moseyed through Lamar Valley.

This was the last photo I took a few weeks ago on my road trip through Eastern Montana. I don’t think it defines Eastern...
03/03/2021

This was the last photo I took a few weeks ago on my road trip through Eastern Montana. I don’t think it defines Eastern Montana by any means, and it certainly doesn’t define my trip. But it is the photo that has made me contemplate the most.

The Gallatin River Canyon under the full moon, with and without lights.
03/01/2021

The Gallatin River Canyon under the full moon, with and without lights.

A lot of us experience the Gallatin River like this: in the dark, on snowy roads, in a line of lights, hoping the drive ...
02/24/2021

A lot of us experience the Gallatin River like this: in the dark, on snowy roads, in a line of lights, hoping the drive goes smoothly, hoping there’s not a traffic stopping accident so that we can get home early enough to go to bed and get some sleep before we wake early the next morning to do drive the canyon again.

When I first moved to the area almost twenty years ago, it was possible to live in Big Sky, but now its not unless you’re extremely lucky, well connected, or rich. So thousands of us commute from the valley for construction or service industry jobs. Why do we do it? Well there’s a development o**y occurring in Big Sky, so the construction jobs pay well enough to justify running yourself into the ground. The skiing at Big Sky used to be worth the perks of working in a ski shop and driving an hour and a half each way to get a ski break each day. But now the mountain is so busy there’s no guarantee you’ll get a ski break and the resort prioritizes opportunities for the rich to pay their way to the front of the line. To me at least, the quality of skiing isn’t worth the commute anymore.

Yet for the last three winters, I did the commute. I’d leave home before first light and return home after last light. This was how I saw the Gallatin River; through groggy eyes, fogged up windows, and a glare in my line of sight. When the time change happens in March, its mind blowing. You see the water, the trees, and the mountain sides of the canyon again and realize what you’ve been missing. You realize how draining the commute has been all winter, and you can’t wait for ski season to be over so that you can drive Highway 191 to the place along the river that you love and to where you want to enjoy, rather than flying past it in the dark.

Growing up in Idaho, I came to notice that highways we drove followed rivers. I defined my knowledge of the place I grew...
02/22/2021

Growing up in Idaho, I came to notice that highways we drove followed rivers. I defined my knowledge of the place I grew up by the river canyons I followed whether that was driving up the North Fork Payette River for weekend trips to McCall with my parents, the South Fork Payette to get up to Stanley and the Sawtooths for Boy Scout trips, the Middle Fork of the Boise to car camp with high school friends, or the Salmon and Clearwater River Canyons to get to and from U of I in Moscow. In a way, I knew where I was from and who I was as an Idahoan by the rivers I travelled.

The Gallatin River provides the same sense of place here in Southwest Montana. Many of us call this place home because of our love for this river, and it’s certainly well-loved. I’ve spent dozens of days and nights on the Gallatin this past year, trying to see it in ways that both celebrate its beauty and explain what is going on in this place that we call home. I have more images that I’ll share in the coming weeks.

Another from Big Sky a couple of weeks ago.
02/21/2021

Another from Big Sky a couple of weeks ago.

hitting a kicker in Big Sky, Montana.
02/21/2021

hitting a kicker in Big Sky, Montana.

I took a road trip through Eastern Montana last week because I had never been there. Most of the days, the clouds were l...
02/21/2021

I took a road trip through Eastern Montana last week because I had never been there. Most of the days, the clouds were low and the light was flat, which was unfair to the place because it made me assume the place was gloomy. Also, this was the first road trip I took by myself after putting down my dog a couple of months ago, and so it didn’t feel right walking around towns by myself. These places are people’s homes and for them to see a guy walking his dog around their town, that’s normal. But to see a guy walking their streets at night by himself? That’s suspicious, and so I felt uncomfortable with myself and my photography and looking at my photos upon returning home, I can see the discomfort I felt in at least some of the photos I took.

I want to go back to Eastern Montana when the days are long, the land is green, the skies are blue, and this pandemic is gone and I feel fully comfortable going from old bar to old bar because small Montana towns have some of the greatest bars in the world. I want to give this place another chance.
#406

From a calm morning in Lamar Valley a couple of winters ago when the bison and the wolves were nowhere to be found (exce...
02/18/2021

From a calm morning in Lamar Valley a couple of winters ago when the bison and the wolves were nowhere to be found (except possibly around the corner in Soda Butte Valley or down the hill near Slough Creek).

A couple of weeks ago in Lamar Valley in Yellowstone, I watched a lone black wolf bound through the snow through these c...
02/17/2021

A couple of weeks ago in Lamar Valley in Yellowstone, I watched a lone black wolf bound through the snow through these cottonwood trees, where I had taken this photo a few winters ago. The wolf was on its way to a bison carcass, where it would spend at least 45 minutes laying in the snow, chewing on a bone. I, however, couldn’t last longer than that in the cold wind, so I succumbed to my car and started the drive back towards Bozeman.

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