A year in one place

摘要

Helena, Montana is Golden Eagle country. Thousands glide past each fall from the rugged lands of Canada and Alaska. Many follow the ridge updraft highways, but at least a few spill out over the valleys on thermals. From an eagle's view a thousand feetup, Sevenmile Creek in October looks like countless other grassland streams here on the dry side of the Continental Divide. It's a ribbon of burgundy stems and orange leaves in a sea of tinder-dry grasses. This is arid country, the mountains cloaked with hardy Douglas-firs and ponderosa pines, the valleys a tattered mosaic of grasslands and sagebrush among irrigated hay farms and housing sprawl.