Philipsburg: The Road To Yellowstone III

Hwy 1 is taking us southwards from the Ohrmann Museum in Drummond to a much larger city of Anaconda.

All we are expecting again is a nice day and the amazing Montana scenery in the heart of the wild West. The main goal of our day is to reach Virginia City and that is still many miles away.

We were not thinking of taking detours but the sign on our left is too tempting to ignore.
Philipsburg?

"We sure need coffee, ..." is a plausible excuse and before we know it our silver steed named Honda is left at the curb of Broadway street, the main drag of this century old, well preserved  mining town. 

It feels like we've stepped back in time; surrounded by some of the oldest buildings in the West we are ready to walk straight in and along the way, shoot without a tripod, straight from the hip, or better yet from the eye level. 

Cameras loaded with fresh memory cards we are on a lookout for a coffee bar and a bank or ATM!

Cunningly we manage to climb to the higher vantage points from where we are able to survey the entire town. It's too bad that we cannot make it all the way to the roof.

Across from us is The Broadway Hotel. Old as is, it is still functional and we are making mental notes: how about settling here for the night next time? 

Next to the hotel is a brewery and further up are more old building with some unique businesses inside. Oh, it will be a great walkabout today. Our cameras are already purring but nobody in town seems to notice.

It is high noon when,the shootout breaks at its earnest. 

Missing the lens hood I am paying dearly for the mistake! The deadly sun glare cannot be avoided and makes an unwanted and lasting impact on the memory to be. 

Deciding to change the strategy I look down and commence to shoot low.

There they are! Firing at their earnest! I can easily get them now!

Ahhh, loser me! Failed to notice that my wide lens betrayed my feet! 

Too late ..... they are already speeding away!

Opportunity missed - no more shots from here!

Deed done they are heading straight for the bar! Some local characters (under a pretense of having a drink) already sit there in waiting.

"Say, gardeners have the best dirt, huh ? 

Wonderin'if them strangers understand that."

Oh no, thank you, we are photographers, eh? We are sorry, but no dirt please, those lenses are very touchy. 

But we would love to share a cup of Java here with you, if you don't mind. 

Greenhorns! Sure, jus' settle and have your drink.

No harm done; 
on the contrary - sharing the coffee shop with the garden girls we are having the best times of our lives.

With the last powerful drop gone, we check our equipment, 
spring to our feet and 
hit the town!

First the the micro brewery. Called Philipsburg Brewing Co, it is hidden inside a handsome corner building dated as 1888.

And, again: in the whirlpool of action I forgot to ask the name of their of beer ... what a shame!
Could it be Philipsburg? Aha, everything can be found on Internet: click here

Then the Sapphire Gallery!. If you love real stones just click.

We are discovering that this area is rich with sapphires (ahh yes), and we are going in to check it out.

Looking at the price of this gorgeous set a thought occurred to us: What of the following would we prefer to attach to our bodies? 

This on your left,
or 
a couple of pro-camera bodies and a superbag with a couple of professional lenses both in a 10K range, maybe a tripod and an off camera flash or two plus other trimmings, and still have money left for lunch? Or two.

It is an amazing set of local blue sapphires and sparkling diamonds in a price range that, just like those cameras and lenses, are beyond our reach. 

Still, beautiful things are always nice to look at.

So - we fire a couple of shot from and walk away.

This sparkling bracelet sells only at a fraction of the price but it would still equip one with some prestigious photo gear. It would also look great on the wrist while gardening ...  but no, seriously - it is a piece of art!

(Oh, forgot ... everyone's an artist! No, no no - put that credit card away!)

In the dark corner of the jewellery store rest some heavy duty safes. We admire the pride and passion that those, long before us, used to put into making of things. Right here - at home!

All blue we leave the sparkling stones of the Sapphire Gallery  wondering to the next door in hope to sweeten up..

The Sweet Palace, world famous candy factory with its thousand sweet selections, pink, white and smelling ... oohhhh-sooo-gooooddddd .... is welcoming us with:

Oh yes, this place is also worth a raid!

And that is IT. The end of explorations.
Our goal for the day was to reach Virginia City so we must leave Philipsburg for now.

It was certainly worth the detour!

Ohrmann Museum: The Road To Yellowstone II

On our Day 2 we break our rule and take # 90 from Missoula towards Butte but as soon as we come up to the intersection with Hwy # 1 we take a sharp turn to SW. We are on our way to Butte via Anaconda expecting ...  not much - just enjoying the spectacular scenery under the proverbially blue and wide Montana sky.
It is a beautiful day indeed.

Not wanting to stop at every corner we are shooting photos from the car - a camera on a tripod set at F 5.6 or a just a tiny bit higher, ISO 400 and a cable release usually work OK. One must shoot straight ahead and hope for the best. I must say that the Montana roads are well built and maintained so the bumps are not a big issue.
Clean windows work too although after the first thousand kilometers "clean" takes on a slightly different meaning. 
In any case - we are having fun.




Some 4 km down Hwy # 1,  in vicinity of Drummond, a community of about 300 with a motto: "We have two gas stations!" Judy exclaims:

What was that?"

"What?" in a stereo from Nel and I.

"That! Back there! A bird!"


"Where? Where?"


We are determined to turn back to check out another wildlife photo opportunity.





"No .... no ... it is a museum" Judy is the one occupying the back seat, the only one able to check out anything that we could have missed.

By that time we are approaching a tempting sign:

Nel is already steering the car to her left - one swift turn and we are just about to discover a very neat place, something that will be really hard to forget in years to come.

Ohrmann Museum and Gallery

There, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, sits spacious low building with inviting entrance and  an assuring, handwritten sign: 

We love the humor and the practicality of it.
Explained and done.



We also love the fact that the sign and the door are guarded by a neat owl welded out by 
someone we are now hoping to meet.

We try the door and it yields
but there is 
no-one inside.

Timidly, we tiptoe out and, obeying the sign, we start snapping away. 

There is so much to be photographed! 

And it seems that everything had been scaled to a proper size. Who is the artist, we wonder, but so far, the yard is quiet, as if it belonged only to the three of us.

It is close to noon and the light is harsh so we decide to put all the photo-club discussions and all the readings we have done to a test of truth.  
We are going to try an HDR technique again! If we can figure out how to set our cameras to take sequences of photos with different exposures, that is. 

Hmmm. Isn't life one extreme challenge!

Finally, out of the house directly opposite to the gallery comes Mrs. Ohrmann. 
"Just come right in," she says, "feel free to check out Bill's work. He used to do his wood-carved and welded sculptures while he was able to handle the media. Now he works with John, our son, on big projects like that." 
She nods at the large statues outside the door.
"He was always artistic, but later on, at maybe 78 he picked up the painting. Much easier to handle," she smiles. "That was a long time ago, maybe fifteen or almost twenty years."
Wow! That would put Mr. Ohrmann somewhere in the 95 year range. REALLY?

We stand inside in awe:

There are so many! Each is loaded with a message - many weighing heavily on the very soul. Many grasping the human heart .....are we really like that? The humanity? Unfortunately, we are.

The artist is the defender of the Earth and in the wisdom of his long years, sees things clearly; much more clearly than many of us ever will. He takes no prisoners to his ideas and his art - now I fully understand the handwritten sign at the entrance door.
For those who want to really know what I am trying to talk about go to his website  and check things out for yourself. Careful though, you might come out with many thoughts and a heavy heart. 

Back outside, Nel and Judy are already chatting with Mr. Ohrmann. The statue of a Kodiak bear is carefully observing the trio. "Yes," he says, "my son is now welding all those ideas. That one took us several months to finish." 
He looks at us with the kindest, brightest eyes I have ever seen.

We are leaving (much too soon) with a copy of a DVD done by Sean O'Brien "Be Thou Always As A Guest" featured on PBS television. It is a month later that we can finally watch the film. (You can watch it on YouTube - it is time well spent. Just click here.)
It is mind provoking and touching at the same time. So proud that we stumbled upon the place and met Mr. and Mrs. Ohrmann.
Thanks Judy .... it is all your doing. Thanks for your eagle (heron?) eye!

Oh, and I almost forgot: 
There was a heart on the mammoth - the red of it caught my eye and I did take a snapshot. Then walked away! 
I never checked the message - never opened the little door - never will know what it meant!
Unless ... we go back one day.

From BC to Missoula: The Road To Yellowstone I

 

 

Ready, Set, Go - From British Columbia To West Yellowstone

There is nothing like having a couple of good friends with the similar interests. 

2 years ago Nel, Judy and I decided to make a photo-nature-fun trip to Yellowstone National Park. Life being what it is, last year did not work out for neither of us. 

This year we decided that NOTHING was going to keep us at home. 

Not sure about this one but as you can see it did "talk" to us in a fun way  ... it also keeps on prompting me to think of many social aspects of various societies and of the times past and present.
Glad to be free to be able to go on a trip with "only" female friends.

Being from British Columbia we would have to travel eastwards across Montana to our base "camp" in West Yellowstone (we were really going to rough it out) From there we could take daily trips to the park and return in the evening to our glass of red .... you know.

Our idea of roughing it out in one of the Moose Creek Cabins: right smack in the middle of the city of  West Yellowstone!!!!

That was the plan. But ... first we would have to get there!!!! 

There are 5 different ways to enter Yellowstone National Park:
West - West Yellowstone = ours
North: Gardiner
Northeast: Cook City and Silver Gate
East: by Cody Peak
South: from Jackson by Moose Junction 


We could have taken HWY 90 from Spokane, WA straight to our day's destination - Missoula, MT but, wanting to learn more about the smaller places we took twists and turns of lesser roads. Therefore we chose Hwy 200 which took us from the northern corner of Idaho to Montana - there it ran along blue reservoirs and crystal clear rivers all the way to its junction with Hwy 93 which took us to Missoula. What a great choice it was!

We got a wonderful Montana Welcome at Noxon Dam - a patient Great Blue Heron just finished its breakfast and gracefully allowed us to take its picture.

Our 200 continued along Clark Fork River and past the community of Paradise (truly!) it switched to Flathead River.

Physical map of Montana shows clearly the differences between West and East topography of the state. The western part bears numerous mountain ranges that differ in their makeup and size, most running their lengths from South to North. The main backbone is formed by the rugged Rockies - past those the country flattens out. Since we traveled from West to East we were in for great changes of scenery, wishing to have planned a month instead of ten days trip. Next time perhaps.

Shot while approaching this animal crossing: a neat idea, beneficial to both the drivers and animals alike

Sun was at its highest when we drove past this industrial place. Some say that one cannot take creative photos at noon, but travel with Nel and you might change your mind. She saw the patterns and that was it: for the next 30 minutes we circled about the humongous tanks trying to be true to the car stickers above. 

Reach:ing Missoula: in a vast flat area surrounded by what seemed to sandy hills sprawls a city of about 67 000. We did not have much time to explore the geological features of the area - the city occupies the flat, bottom portion of what used to be a vast glacial lake. The steep hills that surround it are the banks of the former lake. They are still bearing the signs of  water levels as the lake was yielding to the dry land. 

It was still quite sunny when we reached the historic downtown, with the light being harsh, we opted for HDR photography (not sure what we are trying to do? Click here .... be patient, this guy is good)

The Missoula County Court House - a definite showpiece of the city since 1908.

We found a block of houses in Colonial style, a church and more - .... next time we need to budget for more time in order to explore this city and its interesting history.

No tripod? 

According to all the photo-literature you have a problem!

Unless your name is Nel.

(Read the stickers!)

We ended up the day in an excellent Thai restaurant - Nel acquired two more friends but they refused to travel along

Morning was announced by a bunch of Brewer's Blackbirds discussing their breakfast. 

Have a listen then multiply by hundred. 

(In the www. you have to scroll down a bit and click on "Song")

That's an alarm clock for you. 

Day 2 found us travelling on another set of smaller roads and discovering more neat places indeed.