Crown of the Continent Photography Map: National Geographic Magazine

Current Issue July 2009
Table of Contents ››

- ADVERTISEMENT -

Crown of the Continent

Click on the dots below to explore Michael Melford's photographic journey in Glacier-Waterton International Peace Park.

0 754 images/watertonglacier.gif 602 754 10027008 10027008 images/rowecreek.gif Rowe Creek As if the lifeblood of the Earth were welling up in its stones, a Waterton creek bed gleams crimson. Iron-rich rocks are glazed by brushstrokes of tumbling water—some of the cleanest on the continent. Photograph by Michael Melford 10 10 1 Rowe Creek 0 0 10 Verdana 0 0 0 0 0 false 258 79 10 7 10027008 10027008 images/mtwilbur.gif Mt. Wilbur Despite rain and leaden, unpromising skies, photographer Michael Melford trained his lens on the shoulder of Mt. Wilbur, and for an instant his pre-dawn fortitude was rewarded. “You have to be there, just in case,” Melford says. “That morning the sun came out for about a minute.” Photograph by Michael Melford 10 10 1 Mt. Wilbur 0 0 10 Verdana 0 20 0 0 0 false 373 250 -26 -25 10027008 10027008 images/canadaborder.gif Canada Border At the gates of Canada’s Waterton Lakes National Park, southern Alberta’s rolling, wildflower-freckled grasslands heave abruptly, thunderously skyward to meet the front range of the Rockies. Photograph by Michael Melford 10 10 1 Canada Border 0 0 10 Verdana 0 8 0 1 0 false 438 164 7 7 10027008 10027008 images/lakesherburne.gif Lake Sherburne Brimming with summer snowmelt, Glacier’s Lake Sherburne overflows into a tangle of aspens on its shore. Photograph by Michael Melford 10 10 1 Lake Sherburne 0 0 10 Verdana 0 0 0 20 0 false 471 290 -39 -24 10027008 10027008 images/grinelllake.gif Grinnell Lake The slower grind of glaciers over ground yields rock flour—limestone and shale particles that tint meltwater pools like Grinnell Lake in milky blue-green swirls. Photograph by Michael Melford 10 10 1 Grinnell Lake 0 0 10 Verdana 0 0 0 0 0 false 397 313 6 0 10027008 10027008 images/loganpass.gif Logan Pass Dustings of yellow glacier lilies bloom along the Continental Divide. These plants take years to mature, if grizzlies don’t eat the bulbs first. 10 10 1 Logan Pass 0 0 10 Verdana 0 8 0 0 0 false 354 347 5 7 10027008 10027008 images/vulturepeak.gif Vulture Peak Winter sunrise shares its pale luster with the rough-cut facets of 9,638-foot-high (2,937 meters) Vulture Peak in Montana’s Glacier National Park. Photograph by Michael Melford 10 10 1 Vulture Peak 0 0 10 Verdana 0 8 0 1 0 false 179 212 1 6 10027008 10027008 images/rams.gif Going-to-the-Sun Road Up is as easy as down for nimble bighorn sheep, sprinting over steep slopes in a blur of early snowfall and their own speed. Photograph by Michael Melford 10 10 1 Going-to-the-Sun Road 0 0 10 Verdana 0 8 0 0 0 false 325 325 -145 -9 10027008 10027008 images/lakemcdonald.gif Near Lake McDonald Snow-covered slopes and the blackened trunks of trees scorched in a 2003 wildfire transform the winter landscape near Glacier’s Lake McDonald into a charcoal sketch. Fire visits regularly: Eleven major wildfires burned 218,739 acres (88,520 hectares) of parkland between 1984 and 2006. Photograph by Michael Melford 10 10 1 Near Lake McDonald 0 0 10 Verdana 0 8 0 0 0 false 226 388 -52 11 10027008 10027008 images/mountcannon.gif Mount Cannon Fir and spruce tower 80 feet (24 meters) or more over the forest floor—humbled in their turn by upthrust layers of billion-year-old rock. Blackfeet Indians call these mountains “the backbone of the world.” Photograph by Michael Melford 10 10 1 Mount Cannon 0 0 10 Verdana 0 20 0 0 0 false 334 372 -38 10 10027008 10027008 images/wildgoose.gif Wild Goose Island Chiseled promontories edging St. Mary Lake bear witness: Ice moved here. Glaciers ruled supreme 15,000 years ago, piled so deep that only the tops of the tallest peaks caught the warmth of sunrise. Photograph by Michael Melford 10 10 1 Wild Goose Island 0 0 10 Verdana 0 8 0 20 0 false 457 387 -40 11 10027008 10027008 images/stmary.gif St.Mary Lake Two valleys south of Lake Sherburne, the glass-clear waters of St. Mary Lake slosh in a glacier-carved basin ten miles (16 kilometers) long, shuffling cobbles that line the bottom like decks of playing cards. Photograph by Michael Melford 10 10 1 St. Mary Lake 0 0 10 Verdana 0 0 0 0 0 false 488 379 -31 -21 10027008 10027008 images/kentlapeak.gif Kintla Peak Far from the conveniences and crowds of Going-to-the-Sun Road, 10,101-foot-high (3,780 meters) Kintla Peak catches the first blush of a winter dawn. At any time of year the northwestern reaches of Glacier National Park offer a sanctuary for lovers of solitude: The Canadian border is closer than the nearest road. Photograph by Michael Melford 10 10 1 Kintla Peak 0 0 10 Verdana 0 0 0 0 0 false 134 131 7 2 10027008 10027008 images/snowtrees.gif Going-to-the-Sun Road The calendar said last day of summer, but the sky declared a January mood, with road-closing snowdrifts. In a landscape painted for millennia in the blue-white hues of cold, winter is never far away. Photograph by Michael Melford 10 10 1 Going-to-the-Sun Road 0 0 10 Verdana 0 20 0 20 0 false 167 438 -52 10