A River Runs Through It

Madison River Sunrise, #2. Yellowstone NP, Wyoming, 2014

The Madison River, running out of Jellystone National Park and spilling into the big sky state of Montana, has to be one of the most picture-perfect mountain streams on this Earth. Eden-like…wide, shallow, clear…passing through forests and meadows harboring herds of bison, elk, deer…and  the occasional GRIZZ along its banks (to keep things dicey and spicey). Giant boulders sprinkled along the middle of the soothing current sprout small, struggling evergreen trees….the splish-splash of a feeding trout…the misty dawns.

It is no wonder the place is a Mecca for the serious and meditative fly fisherman or fisherwoman.

When I am alone in the half-light of the canyon, all existence seems to fade away to a being with my soul and memories of the sounds of the Big Blackfoot River, and a four-count rhythm, and the hopes that a fish will rise.
Eventually all things merge into one, and a river runs through it.

–From the 1992 Robert Redford-directed film, A River Runs Through It (based on the 1976 novel of the same name by Norman Mclean)