It was an early August morning, and it started the way many days begin this time of year: a cool morning breeze bringing a squall moving up the valley from the South. This system was most likely a weak cold front that originated from the Bitterroots, bringing some much-needed moisture. As the squall moved up the valley, trailing its curtain of moisture, it caught the early morning light from the sun just peeking over the Beaverhead Mountains to the East. I stood with my camera, mesmerized by how the sun turned the morning clouds into a crimson display of red, highlighted by a couple of rainbows. Perhaps it was the extension of the red spectrum from the rainbows that engulfed the clouds and rain.
I am at the south side of our cabin, within our jack fence, which keeps the cows from wandering onto our front porch. For those not familiar with the Big Hole, it is ranch land from beginning to end, which explains the rolling grasslands in the distance. Southwest Montana’s Big Hole country is still the real West. Considered one of Montana’s most beautiful valleys, this sparsely populated landscape is home to some of the largest and oldest working ranches in Montana. Cowboys are alive and well here, as they have been for 150 years.
The Big Hole is a valley 15 to 20 miles across and 75 miles long, bordered on all sides by various mountain ranges. In this image, I am looking south at the Pioneer Mountains, just below the clouds, and to the far right runs the Big Hole River, a world-class fly-fishing stream.
In my experience, there are images that we have to work for to get the right light, angle, and camera settings, and then there are those images, like this one, where nature puts on a display and we are blessed with being there with our camera to record it. There is nothing I can do to make this scene any more evocative; it is what I saw.
