Kootenai Falls, Montana

Start sending my mail to Milepost 21, US Highway 2, Libby, MT 59923!

Jan and I were fortunate to take a side trip while connected with a conference held in Spokane, Washington.  We had only two free days. Half of the first day was spent sleeping late to recover from our loss of two time zones, which started with a wakeup at 2:30 am to catch the flight.

Our destination was five and a half hours northeast, Glacier National Park.  Every person I ever talk to about their trip spoke of this National Park with a continuing sense of awe.  I had to see it.  So we set off on the scenic back roads on our adventure.  Then we discovered there is no short or fast way to get there but it all scenic, every last foot of travel.  We drove across the chimney of Idaho then into Montana.  I did not know this, but the speed limit on these two-lane Montana roads is 70 mph day time and 65 mph at night.  The absence of traffic was also an enormous pleasure. 

Zipping along enjoying the beautiful northwest countryside and small towns, I see a little sign announcing the presences of “Kootenai Falls.”  Before Jan could figure out how to say the first word, I read the last.  In our push to get to the National park, we had opted to forgo most of the opportunities to take glancing blows to other vistas.  It was time to stop.

The hike to the falls and back was probably less than a mile with few challenges.  The head of the trail began and continued with towering ponderosa pines.  A series of introduction and instructional plaques were posted to inform the visitors.  One of them told how the Kootenai, the aboriginal settlers, considered the falls as a sacred place.  They believed it was the center of the world.  Their leaders would come here to commune with the spiritual forces seeking direction to lead their people.

It only took about ten yards to realize this was indeed a place to revere; for me, the unavoidable sense of the presence of the Creator was overwhelming.

When we began to hear the falls, we were presented with the option of going to a swinging bridge or go to the falls.  Limited by time, I chose to see what God had made over what man had built.  The falls did not appear all at once; there was just too much of it.  From the very first mile of our push to see Glacier, we feasted on vastness of the beauty of the northwest.  I was not prepared to receive the gift of standing in front of Kootenai Falls.

Only three other times in my life have I had a rush of wonder surge though me.  The last time was when I stood on the north rim of the Grand Canyon.  The first was when I saw Jan come down the aisle at our wedding.  The third was the moment our first child was born.  There were five people in the room, and all of a sudden, there were six!

I have seen Niagara Falls, and by far it is singular in every respect, but this was different, it was as though I was looking into the bell of Gabriel’s horn hearing the praise for the magnificence of the eternal Creator.

For me, in that moment, where I was standing was the “center of the world” and the entrance to worshiping its Creator, my Creator, the Creator. 

Photo – Is very hard to put the physical and emotional vista into a digital format.