On the river bank the other day there were several bare rocks among all of the snow-covered ones about 50 feet up from the water, and some lichens seemed to love that environment, living with the snow in a very pretty way.
Every winter after an extended period of sub-zero weather brought by an influx of cold air down from the Arctic, ice builds up on the Flathead River in this location which is about 150 miles south and west of Glacier National Park, a few miles from where it flows into the Clark Fork of the Columbia River. It’s always worth a visit.
The ice cakes form over an area of several miles upstream where the river is smooth and slower moving. When it reaches this canyon, the river narrows and becomes quite deep and fast flowing and the ice cakes that have formed above collect and pile up on the river surface in the canyon. In many parts of Montana ice dams similar to this can cause problems with flooding, but this one causes no trouble.
