February 2, 2016
Winter visit to Dog Lake and the waterfall on the stream that feeds it
At least once every winter I try to visit the waterfall on the stream that feeds Rainbow Lake (AKA Dog Lake) about twenty miles from here on the Flathead Indian Reservation, and I chose today for this winter’s visit. I included snowshoes with my equipment, but found them to be unnecessary this time: it was one of the areas that received very little of last night’s snow. To my surprise I found instead a brief period of sun and some blue sky!
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Montana Outdoors 
It looks like such a gorgeous day to get out and hike in the snow.
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Comment by Charlie@Seattle Trekker — February 2, 2016 @ 3:43 pm
Th sun was out for a ver short time, and luckily I happened to be at the right place when it came out.!
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Comment by montucky — February 2, 2016 @ 7:50 pm
I wonder if your lakes are frozen enough to ice fish on. Not here; we’ve got a lot of very disappointed ice fisherman.
It looks like you had a perfect day to visit the lake. That looks like a sizeable waterfall too.
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Comment by New Hampshire Garden Solutions — February 2, 2016 @ 3:50 pm
The widespread advice here has been to stay off the lakes, but this one looked solid (no wet spots, unbroken snow, etc.) and there was one isc fishing shed out on the ice today. I didn’t test the ice myself though.
The waterfall usually has more ice than it did today, but there was a lot of running water coming down through it. The sun was so bright when I was there I had to use a high shutter speed to achieve proper exposure. I had a filter in my camera bag, but my fingers were too cold to get it out and use it. The stream is the main one that feeds the lake, so it has a fairly good volume.
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Comment by montucky — February 2, 2016 @ 7:54 pm
As a child I was fascinated by a frozen waterfall and wondered for a long time how those fast moving drops could freeze. The cloud on the right of the first photo looks ominous. More snow?
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Comment by wordsfromanneli — February 2, 2016 @ 5:45 pm
The sun was out only briefly between snow storms. A canyon about 20 miles to the south had about six inches of snow during the day. The term in use these days is “snow banding”, where heavy snow will fall in a band across the country, usually only a few miles wide, sometimes more. There was no snow falling there or where I live, but not far away there were places getting heavy snow.
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Comment by montucky — February 2, 2016 @ 7:56 pm
Good idea to have the snowshoes handy, just in case.
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Comment by wordsfromanneli — February 2, 2016 @ 8:14 pm
I had them in the Jeep!
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Comment by montucky — February 2, 2016 @ 8:19 pm
Gorgeous!
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Comment by derrycats — February 2, 2016 @ 6:31 pm
Luckily I chose a very good day for my visit up there. We are finally cooling off toward more normal weather for this season, ending the rain and the more dull rain clouds.
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Comment by montucky — February 2, 2016 @ 8:01 pm
Beautiful landscapes, but how cold must it get to freeze a waterfall!?!?
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Comment by de Wets Wild — February 2, 2016 @ 7:34 pm
The moving bulk of the moving water doesn’t freeze. A “frozen” waterfall forms as an icicle does, and as a film of water flows over it, it freezes and adds to the icicle until it appears as though the whole waterfall is frozen. It doesn’t take extremely low temperatures as much as long periods of cold temperature (usually in the range of 10° to 25°F). Usually the main amount of water still flows behind the huge icicle that has grown there. These photos are a little deceptive because it was so bright I had to use fast shutter speeds which stopped the motion of the falling water, from 1/320 (in the third photo) to 1/2500 (in the fifth photo). The frozen icicles are on both sides of the center column of falling water. If we have a long period of cold weather, the icicles will form clear across the whole fall, and the moving water will still be falling behind them.
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Comment by montucky — February 2, 2016 @ 8:14 pm
Thanks for clearing that up for me, Montucky! I was (clearly) dumbfounded!
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Comment by de Wets Wild — February 2, 2016 @ 8:16 pm
Such beauty out there, Terry…I love the so-bright blue of the sky with the crisp freshness of the snow…..
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Comment by seekraz — February 2, 2016 @ 7:44 pm
The weather was just right for the hour or so I was there. I’ve been there many times and this was the only time I can remember that I’ve actually seen sun shine directly on the waterfall itself.
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Comment by montucky — February 2, 2016 @ 8:17 pm
Your comment about the sun shining on the waterfall makes me think again of something I’m learning: no matter how many times you’ve been in a certain place, it’s never the same. And, sometimes, it can provide some very real surprises!
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Comment by shoreacres — February 2, 2016 @ 9:00 pm
Yes, nature of full of surprises and ever changing. I have quite a list favorite places to which I return again and again. The pleasure of returning to somewhere that has pleasant memories, the feeling of “being at home” there, and all of the little things that are different from the other times make those wonderful experiences.
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Comment by montucky — February 2, 2016 @ 9:04 pm
It’s fun to drive in the snow in such beautiful country
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Comment by Michael Andrew Just — February 2, 2016 @ 10:02 pm
I agree, especially when there’s a little sun and blue sky. I appreciate winter every bit as much as the other seasons.
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Comment by montucky — February 2, 2016 @ 10:23 pm
Oh, that is so beautiful!! Love those icicles!
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Comment by Jo Woolf — February 3, 2016 @ 6:19 am
It’s not a publicized place and gets fairly few visitors. The scene changes dramatically from season to season.
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Comment by montucky — February 3, 2016 @ 9:21 am
Looks like it was a perfect day. What could be better than.snowfall, sunshine, and peace and quiet? [Big sigh]
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Comment by Mama's Empty Nest — February 3, 2016 @ 6:46 am
I love the peace and quiet, visiting places like that with no one else around. The only recent visitor was a bobcat who was hunting the brushy area below the falls.
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Comment by montucky — February 3, 2016 @ 9:44 am
looks like a wonderful outing
lovely that the sun arrived for your beautiful images and for you
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Comment by Tammie — February 3, 2016 @ 3:22 pm
Hi Tammie,
The old waterfall is always worth a winter visit!
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Comment by montucky — February 3, 2016 @ 8:14 pm
That’s a beautiful place!
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Comment by Candace — February 3, 2016 @ 7:12 pm
It is! I’m always amazed at how few visitors it gets.
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Comment by montucky — February 3, 2016 @ 8:15 pm
Looks like spectacular weather. Great day for a hike.
Those icicles from the water fall are amazing.
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Comment by Vicki — February 9, 2016 @ 3:28 am
It was a very nice day for a visit to the falls. Very cold though while I was taking pictures, and the footing below the falls was treacherous; all ice.
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Comment by montucky — February 9, 2016 @ 3:39 pm
Enjoyable photos! Frozen waterfall photos are interesting.
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Comment by Sartenada — February 17, 2016 @ 1:00 am
I love seeing them and the challenge of photographing them and also getting nice and warm again when I return home.
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Comment by montucky — February 17, 2016 @ 10:35 pm