Two weeks ago as I returned from a few days visit to Arizona, these were some of the first scenes I saw in Montana as I crossed into the state from the south. Even though I was still nearly five hundred miles from my house in the northwestern part of the state, it felt so good to be home!
For over twenty years I lived away from Montana and in those years I would return for a couple weeks each summer to visit. During those trips, as I looked at these scenes the feeling was bitter sweet because I knew I would have to go back soon. This time the “bitter” was not there: I knew I didn’t have to leave again.
Beaverhead Mountains, southern Montana
Beaverhead Mountains, southern Montana
Clark Canyon reservoir, southern Montana
Clark Canyon reservoir, southern Montana
Montana Outdoors 
Beautiful, I can see why you’d be glad to come home to that.
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Comment by Candace — June 4, 2010 @ 2:05 am
There’s just something about the Montana mountains that makes me feel at home.
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Comment by montucky — June 4, 2010 @ 9:01 am
Glad you are home, again. I would miss that beauty, too. Someday, I hope to see it.
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Comment by sandy — June 4, 2010 @ 5:26 am
I hope you do have a chance to visit, Sandy. I haven’t even seen all of the state yet myself.
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Comment by montucky — June 4, 2010 @ 9:04 am
Majestic and breath taking! There is no place like home. 🙂
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Comment by Anna — June 4, 2010 @ 5:48 am
There sure is something about the area in which one grew up. I doubt that I would feel the same way had I been raised in a big city, but I know some folks who were raised in one do.
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Comment by montucky — June 4, 2010 @ 9:06 am
Lovely – truly – no place like home!!! “click, click” with the heels! ;o)
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Comment by Stacey Dawn — June 4, 2010 @ 8:45 am
I have lived at times in six different states. I grew up in Montana and it has always felt like home, but I have also felt very comfortable with Arizona.
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Comment by montucky — June 4, 2010 @ 9:09 am
Welcome back and I can why you hated to leave it for all those years. The feeling of Home is a very nice feeling.
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Comment by Scott Thomas Photography — June 4, 2010 @ 12:51 pm
It sure is, and a very strong one!
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Comment by montucky — June 4, 2010 @ 9:36 pm
Living in such beauty is enriching! Great photographs and fabulous scenery!
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Comment by wildlifewatcher — June 4, 2010 @ 4:25 pm
“Enriching” is a very good word for it! Being in or near to those mountains is good for the soul!
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Comment by montucky — June 4, 2010 @ 9:38 pm
Terry:
To quote Dorothy: “Oh, Auntie Em – there’s no place like home!”
Chad
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Comment by Chad — June 4, 2010 @ 5:38 pm
You know Chad, I think of that quote often when I return home from somewhere. Dorothy articulated a universal feeling, didn’t she!
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Comment by montucky — June 4, 2010 @ 9:40 pm
Always nice to get back to the home place.
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Comment by knightofswords — June 4, 2010 @ 7:57 pm
“Be it ever so humble…”
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Comment by montucky — June 4, 2010 @ 9:40 pm
Oh my. Inspiring, these are such intoxicating scenes.
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Comment by Bo Mackison — June 5, 2010 @ 1:11 am
I remember my Dad saying one time that he could never leave these mountains. I know what he meant and I feel the same way now.
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Comment by montucky — June 5, 2010 @ 8:46 pm
I have the same feeling about upstate New York where I grew up, but when ever I go to a place that is truely magestic like your mountains are, I think of my feelings for upstate NY and think that if I had grown up in a place like Montana those feelings would would be magnified even more.
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Comment by kateri — June 5, 2010 @ 4:56 am
Part of that is perhaps just because mountains are very visual and as such continually imprint their images on one’s mind. When I am in another place and look around it’s immediately obvious that it’s just not the same.
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Comment by montucky — June 5, 2010 @ 8:58 pm
Yes indeed… always good to be home!
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Comment by kcjewel — June 5, 2010 @ 7:11 am
I imagine you are also very happy to be home now after all of the traveling you have been doing!
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Comment by montucky — June 5, 2010 @ 8:59 pm
Montana has to be the most beautiful state in the Union. How wonderful to live exactly where you want to live. Home is a wonderful place indeed.
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Comment by Preston — June 6, 2010 @ 6:35 am
Every state that I’ve become very familiar with has it’s own share and type of beauty. Montana’s beautiful wild country is the kind that I personally like best. I do wish however that we were doing more to protect the wild country from those who are eager to exploit it for a few bucks of profit.
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Comment by montucky — June 6, 2010 @ 8:06 am
visiting places is fun, but it is always good to get home. you are blessed to live where you do, I can see why you love it!
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Comment by silken — June 9, 2010 @ 7:45 am
Part of it too is that the times in which I grew up here were wonderful times and that set the stage.
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Comment by montucky — June 9, 2010 @ 10:23 pm