2003 - 1996

For Montana this is a common scene - a series of small beaver dams creating meadows and hosting an array of life forms. This one, a couple of miles up North Meadow Creek from my home, is only a short, soggy hike from where you can park the family car. Yet its shrine-like serenity makes it seem like you are miles from anywhere...and I tend to whistper, if I speak at all, whenever I am there. I was there one evening and found fresh elk beds in the tall marsh grass and the sweet, musky smell of elk still hanging heavy in the stillness. I heard a splash in one of the upper ponds. It could have been a samll brookie rising for a bug or a big bull moving his harem.