Jeff Hewitt Photography

07/22/2026

I went up to Falls Creek Trail the other day. It’s such a beautiful place. Here are a few photos from the hike that I wanted to share.

07/22/2026

Have you ever seen a rainbow standing straight up? It might look like one, but it’s actually called a sun pillar. It happens when tiny ice crystals high in the sky catch the sunlight and bounce it back to our eyes. When the Sun is low in the sky, the light lines up just right to make a bright column of light. Nature is full of amazing surprises, and sometimes all you have to do is look up.

07/22/2026

Went fishing with my son the other day. Always fun.

07/22/2026

Ran into a moose at the other day. (July,2)

07/22/2026

07/15/2026

While hiking with my brother, we kept noticing mushrooms tucked into the branches of pine trees. At first I thought it was strange, but then I remembered that squirrels actually do this.

It looks like this is a Slippery Jack mushroom, one of the mushrooms squirrels love to eat. Instead of eating them all at once, they’ll often wedge them into tree branches to dry in the sun. Drying them helps preserve them so the squirrels can come back and eat them later.

07/15/2026

My son has always been an animal kid. He knows the difference between the snakes around here, so when I heard him yell, “Dad! Dad!” from down by the creek, I hurried over to see what was going on.

He was grinning from ear to ear. “Look what I found!”

He had caught a live garter snake… and somehow it already had a live sculpin in its mouth. He told me he found them exactly like that in the creek.

Both the snake and the sculpin were still alive. We snapped a quick picture, then he carefully let them both go.

It’s one of those moments that remind me why I love getting outside with my kids. Nature is full of surprises, and sometimes all you have to do is slow down and pay attention.

montanawildlife

07/08/2026

Wilson’s Snipe

The word “sniper” actually comes from this bird. Because snipes are small, fast, and incredibly difficult to shoot, skilled hunters became known as snipers. Eventually the military adopted the term for expert marksmen.

07/08/2026

This Ponderosa pine is estimated to be between 80 and 150 years old

07/08/2026

Northern lights that felt like to me forever to photograph because the grass kept being blurry.