Wild Wanderings :: Montana Lookout Tower

These past few weeks threw us off our tracks a little. Sent us down some some unexpected roads and left us wondering how we got there. Questioning our place in it all. Yearning for a quiet moment away. It's so easy to lose yourself in the relentless hustle and digital hum of our current society. To lose touch with the quiet little moments that breathe joy into our daily lives. That give us peace. That resonate at a deeper level. 

So we ran away to the mountains. 

To recharge and reconnect and reprioritize. It's amazing what a wood burning stove and a clear starry sky can do for morale. We sang and laughed and played cribbage. We read entries in the lookout record and watched the sunset fade slowly into the Milky Way. We tromped happily among the rocks and told ghost stories and drank endless french presses of good strong coffee. In short, we totally blissed out. 

Places like these are special. Important. This particular lookout has been standing since the 1930's and is available to the public year round. Each traveler chops wood for the next guest and leaves the place a little nicer than they found it. It is a beautiful exercise in community preservation. Nearly everyone who stays does their part to make sure it continues. 

As we drove happily down the frosty mountain, hearts full and minds quiet, we vowed to find more time and space for places like this. To seek them out when we feel lost, like little lighthouses in the dark. To remember we are mountain kids, born and bred, and that every now and then we just need to go home. 

xo,

Wild Wanderings :: Garnet Ghost Town

And now we walk quietly into the darker days. Into the days of mist and fog and dark forests and flickering candles. Of shuttered windows and crackling fires and root cellars and ghost stories. Fall is here, dear ones. 

I have always loved the sense of dark mystery that this season carries. The old magic. From a time when preparing for winter meant lots of foraging and preserving and ritual and superstition. This season never ceases to turn my attention to other realms. To other times. They say the veil between worlds is thinner this time of year. What a lovely thought.

This past weekend, Rooster and I took a drive through the winding mountain road that leads to Garnet Ghost Town. The underbrush that surrounds the abandoned gold mine was already donning it's fiery fall colors as we walked quietly down the trail leading to the village. Places like these, frozen in time, demand a certain silence. A reverence. Almost like a cemetery. The artifacts you come across feel so personal.  A child's shoe. A handwritten ledger. A torn petticoat. Left in a perfect state of arrested decay. Like their owner just stepped into the hall to fetch a needle and thread. Places like these make my heart go pitter-patter. 

I tiptoed quietly through the dust of the Grand Hotel, channeling my inner Nancy Drew. I couldn't shake the feeling of being watched. But it wasn't an unnerving presence...more like a maternal inn-keeper making sure I wasn't going to make a mess she would have to clean up. You could almost hear the rustle of heavy skirts coming down the attic stairs. I spent a few happy hours in this forgotten place. Watching the light shift on the peeling wall paper and imagining the souls that lived here. 

xo,