High Prairie in Winter

Looking at the snow photo I posted on January 8th, I thought it might be interesting to contrast that with what my drive back from Winifred was like on January 3rd, just five days earlier. This photo was taken as I was heading south back to Lewistown after a day teaching art to about 60 students at the public school in Winifred. The road was a lot better on the drive back from than it was on the way to Winifred in the morning just ahead of the sunrise. I couldn't take any photos in the morning, as I needed both hands on the steering wheel. During the day, a warm chinook wind blew and cleared some of the roadway. In the morning, I was dodging snow drifts. So this was the perfect ending to the day----or at least as perfect as a high prairie winter day can end!

The mountains visible on the horizon to the left are the Judith and the ones to the right are the North Moccasin. The mountains that appear blue and very low on the horizon just to the right of the Judith Mountains are the Big Snowy. The highest point in the Big Snowy is 8,681 feet (it's named GreatHouse Peak.) They look so unassuming in this photo. Lewistown is just north of the Big Snowy, so you can see that I have a bit of a drive ahead of me yet when I took this photo.