After several sub-zero nights ice is forming on western Montana rivers. These photos are of the Flathead River about a hundred miles downstream from Glacier National Park. By the coming weekend, ice will cover this part of the river from bank to bank.
Montana Highway 200 follows the Flathead River for the last 20 miles of the river before it flows into the Clark Fork River and in that 20 miles there is a stretch of about a half mile where a cliff used to run right up to the river. When I was a kid the old highway in that area had been constructed over a steep and winding path that went up, over and around the cliff. Later, the cliff was blasted out to allow the road to be rebuilt flat and straight, right along the bank of the river. The new cliff face now has numerous seeps from it which freeze in winter, making some attractive ice formations. The vertical lines visible in the ice in these photos are the old drill holes that were filled with explosive charges to blast the rock away. Ice has decorated the holes and in many places, water flows down through the holes and behind the ice.
This time of the year ice builds up along many of the western Montana rivers. So far this year it is less than in many years. Following are a few photos of ice along the Flathead River a few miles from where it enters the Clark Fork of the Columbia, about 110 miles south-southwest of Glacier National Park. In more severe years, the ice in this place covers the entire river and piles up on itself.
