It's been said that no two snowflakes are alike. This statement would be hard to dispute as more than one septillion (a one with fifty zeros) snowflakes reach the earth each year. Glacier National Park gets its share of snowfall, ranging from 30 inches to over 100, with snow drifts over 60 feet. Here in northern Montana the winter season begins in early November and lingers through May.
     Snowmelt floods Glacier's rivers and streams in late spring. Pictured here, in cold a mist, is the fast moving McDonald Creek as it heads west toward the Flathead National Forest.
The Hungry Horse Dam and the 34 mile long reservoir are 15 miles west of Glacier. The 1940s water conservation project was created for water storage and flood control. Enormous amounts of spring runoff are slowly released, producing nearly 5 billion kilowatt hours of hydroelectric power. The dam's height reaches 564 feet, ranking it in the top ten of the tallest dams in the United States.