Fresh flowers, towering trees, and bird songs all came together in one place to provide a unique experience completely different from daily life in the urban San Francisco Bay Area. Away from the constant drone of car engines and pile of books sitting on my desk, I learned to read and appreciate the landscape at Glacier National Park.
When I first arrived, I looked around me; all I noticed was the sheer number of trees, but I never really registered the diversity and richness of plants and wild life. I heard birds chirping, but they all blended into the same song. I saw stunning, vibrant flowers, but they seemed to differ only by their colors. Yet after only a week at the Master Naturalist program at the Glacier Institute, I was able to identify many of the trees unique to the park and classify families of flowers, but most of all I was able to practice the delicate art of bird identification. Now, I keep a bird journal in my free time with pictures and notes on the birds, and I hope to learn to bird by ear.
My experience was eye-opening, and I thank Glacier National Park for this precious opportunity I will cherish for a lifetime. Next time when I return to the park, I will touch the Continental Divide and soar above the tree lines, free like an alpine bird.
Sincerely,
Glacier National Park
Glacier National Park preserves more than a million acres of forests, alpine meadows and lakes with habitat for a wide variety of plant and animal life.
State(s): Montana
Established: 1910
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Greetings from Glacier National Park
Family gatherings at Apgar since 1950s. My Dad’s favorite place to take us. We all have kept this tradition alive and will keep in our family generations to come.
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Greetings from Glacier National Park
I got to go to Glacier on a field trip for my Natural Resource Conservation class as a junior in high school. We spoke to some conservationists and did some activities like planting young trees and shrubs, as well as learning how to count and observe vegetation. It was an…
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