©Bert Gildart: Judging from the number of people who hung around after the two programs I gave this past week at Rich Luhr’s Alumapalooza Airstream Trailer rally, I have to assume the presentations were successful. My feelings were reinforced by thoughts shared by those who specifically sought me out during the three and one half [...]

©Bert Gildart: Here are a few images that should help us recall the incredible sacrifices our soldiers have made over the years. They include images commemorating soldiers from the Civil War and from WW II. The cornfield image recalls the general location at Antietam National Battlefield where 21,000 soldiers charged through stands of corn only to [...]

©Bert Gildart: In about a week I’ll be departing Montana, flying to Jackson, Ohio, to make several “slide” presentations for Rich Luhr’s Aluma Palooza, a huge international gathering of Airstream Travel trailers. One of my presentations will concern photography, and a portion of the talk will certainly include a bit about capturing images of flowers, generally [...]

©Bert Gildart: Montana Public TV aired its “Night of the Grizzlies” documentary May 17 and if nothing else the program has reunited many of us who played some part in the twin tragedies of 1967. Since that time I’ve visited by telephone with friends in various parts of the country who appeared in the documentary. [...]

©Bert Gildart:  Tonight PBS will be airing on Montana Public TV its long awaited retrospective on Night of the Grizzly. The retrospective draws on an immense number of interviews conducted over the past few years with individuals who were in some way involved with the dual tragedy which occurred August of 1967. In a single [...]

©Bert Gildart: For the thousand-plus people who attended Glacier National Park’s 100-year celebration held May 11, 2010, the day could not have been better. The weather was perfect and the audience was in accord with the various dignitaries who offered remarks, which carried much meaning. Backdropped by mountains in the Apgar Range and beneath [...]

©Bert Gildart: One hundred years ago, today, 1.1 million acres in the northwest part of Montana was set aside as the nation’s 10th national park. Like all young college people, many features combine to influence my life, but none had more of an impact on me than this wild country we now call Glacier National [...]

©Bert Gildart: Last week Janie and I parked our Airstream  at Seeley Lake while attending the annual convention of the Northwest Outdoor Writer’s Association of America (NOWA). The conference was held at the Double Arrow Resort, a beautiful facility just a few miles south of our quiet mountain camp. During our three-day convention we took advantage [...]

©Bert Gildart: Nineteen years ago today, Janie and I were married at my sister’s in Poughkeepsie, New York.  Somehow Forrest, my brother-in-law, managed to obtain  reservations for us at the World Trade Center where we stayed the night of May 4th, 1991.  Janie and I both enjoy Broadway hits, so that night we took in [...]

©Bert Gildart: Try as we might, it seems impossible to escape winter (see-1; see-2). At the moment, we’re attending a writer’s conference, specifically, the Northwest Outdoor Writer’s Association, an affiliate of the Outdoor Writer’s Association of America. This year, our chapter has convened at Seeley Lake, a beautiful and remote lake located in Montana — [...]

©Bert Gildart: Montana’s Flathead Valley has a huge population of osprey, and right now they are in the process of building nests. Mostly we see them on the top of telephone poles, but every now and then friends tell me of a nest they’ve found. Generally, they’ve discovered a pair nesting in a tree somewhere [...]

©Bert Gildart: Along the country road where we sometimes live when not traveling in our Airstream (we’re not full timers, only 9/12-ers),  in places there’s the persistent but faint odor of skunk. But the source is not animal, rather it is vegetable. We see the plant every year in late April and in this part of [...]

©Bert Gildart: We’ve been home for almost a week, but have been so swamped with problems and sad news that we’ve had no time for postings. For starters, just after backing our Airstream into its protective shed, we opened the slider to facilitate unpacking. No problem – not until I attempted to close it. Half way [...]

©Bert Gildart: It’s pitch black and though we’re quiet, a herd of antelope senses our presence and tests the air with a whishhhh-ing sound. But when our response doesn’t satisfy the group it  gallops off into the pre-dawn light. Again, the vast  prairie  is quiet and we walk on, but soon hear the soft clucking [...]

©Bert Gildart: Two morning ago Janie and were camped in a KOA in Brigham City, Utah, and woke to a type of near silence that we generally associate with the falling of soft snow. As we lay in bed deciding whether to look out the window, every now and then we’d hear a soft blop, [...]

©Bert Gildart: When weather conditions deteriorate there’s not a whole lot an RVer can do but roll with the punches. Right now — as I write — Monida Pass, the 6,824 foot-high pass that separates Montana from Idaho, is experiencing blizzard conditions, and we must cross it in order to return home. No big deal, we’ll [...]

©Bert Gildart: Yesterday I was joined by three friends from Montana, but what we really share in common is that Chris, Hutch (see bear spray) and I have all worked in and generally explored many of our national parks. Yesterday, all of us (including Daniela, Chris’ wife) agreed: The hike from the Grotto in Zion [...]

©Bert Gildart: The evidence is there: bighorns have occupied Zion National Park for at least 1,000 years. Sheep petroglyphs etch the patina of canyon walls and by using various means of dating, scientists know they are ancient. As one who has been wandering Zion for almost 30 years, I’ve known about the glyphs for decades. But [...]

©Bert Gildart: This, I submit, would have been a compelling photograph without the raven, but doesn’t its presence, though tiny, really tell the story of this magnificent setting in Zion National Park? Yesterday, I was driving the Mount Carmel Highway dominated on either side by Navajo Sandstone, when I came across this powerful sweep of rock [...]

©Bert Gildart: Several days ago we departed Anza Borrego and the campsite at Pegleg where we had parked our Airstream for the past three months. During the course of our stay we met wonderful people and enjoyed our explorations of this huge desert park. Over the course of the next few weeks I’ll most likely be [...]