What Is The Polebridge Mercantile And Where Is It?
The Polebridge Mercantile takes you back in time to the days when general stores sprung up in small towns and often served as the center or the town and a gathering place for local residents. Polebridge is a TINY “town” if you can even call it a town in Northern Montana. It is close to but not within the boundaries of Glacier National Park near the Canadian border. “The Merc” as it is sometimes known is probably most famous for it’s Huckleberry Bear Claws and other homemade pastries and tasty treats. On the shelves you’ll also find an eclectic assortment of foods and touristy merchandise.
The town probably has, at most, a few hundred residents. More in the summer tourist season and far fewer when the harsh Montana winter sets in. There is a rustic hostel in Polebridge, MT. There are some cabins for rent. The Northern Lights Saloon is a popular restaurant in Polebridge right next to the Polebridge Mercantile.
If you are visiting Glacier National Park and plan to spend most of your time on the west side of the park, Polebridge can be a great place to spend the night or a few nights. Every once in a while there will be a nice sunset in Polebridge as was the case on the night this panoramic photo of the Polebridge Mercantile was taken.
What Is It Like To Travel To And Photograph Polebridge And The Polebridge Mercantile?
When traveling to the Polebridge Mercantile you are taking a step back in time and traveling to a small remote mountain town. It might be more like a village. With one store, one restaurant, some cabins and a hotel that serve as lodging and a gas station of absolute last resort, there isn’t much there. The road up to Polebridge is a dirt one that can be quite dusty and at times full of potholes. You can usually drive it with a regular passenger car but might want to check on the road conditions before heading up to Polebridge.
The town of Polebridge is on the outskirts of Glacier National Park up along the North Fork Road. If you are not road tripping out to Polebridge, then you’ll need to pick an airport or a train stop to travel to and get a rental car to explore Polebridge and the wonders of Glacier National Park. The Kalispell Airport will be the closest airport to Kalispell. If you are traveling by rail, the Amtrak station in West Glacier will be the closest stop to Polebridge. It will be much easier to get to a rental car agency if you sly into the airport.
Once you get out there and have a place to stay, the drive up to Polebridge an the Mercantile is pretty straight forward. If you are staying in a cabin in the Polebridge area you can probably walk to the Mercantile. At most, you’ll have a drive of a mile or two. If you are staying in the park or somewhere around the park you’ll most likely have a drive of at least a half hour to get to Polebridge.
What Does It Take To Get A Wall Art Quality Photo Of The Polebridge Mercantile?
When you want to photograph Polebridge and the Polebridge Mercantile you’ll need to decide if you want to try to get it with or without a bunch of people in the photo. If you want to avoid people you’ll want to get there around sunrise or travel out to Glacier well before the summer rush of travelers flock into the park and swarm Polebridge. During the peak season (late June through sometime in September) the entire Polebridge area is PACKED).
Sunset can be a good time to photograph the Polebridge Mercantile. The skies may light up over Polebridge. Sunset can also be a good time to photograph the Polebridge Mercantile as the photo in this article demonstrates. When the skies do light up in the summer, the color is often not over the Mercantile. This photo was shot with a panoramic setup. If you want to get colorful or even fiery skies in your photo of the Polebridge Mercantile, a panoramic setup or a camera that can shoot panoramic photos in the camera might be ideal.
What Is The Best Gear For Photographing The Polebridge Mercantile?
When photographing the Polebridge Mercantile most any camera will do. It is, after all just a building, but a classic one at that. It really depends on what you want to do with your photos. A quick cel phone snap will be perfect for posting to social media. If you want to make large prints, you’ll probably want a decent DSLR or a mirrorless camera with a moderately wide angle lens. A standard zoom lens like the Canon 24-105 is ideal for photographing the Polebridge Mercantile.
The landscape around the Polebridge Mercantile is pretty wide and can lead itself to panoramic photography. If you want to convey how busy the busy this “town center” is you might want to include the massive number of cars parked at the mercantile. If you want to create a really wide angle shot to include fiery skies that may not appear over the Mercantile then you’ll want a panoramic setup and the gear to shoot a panoramic photo.
What Is The Story Behind This Sunset Panoramic Photo Of The Polebridge Mercantile?
During the summer of 2015 I was on a western national park road trip. As usual, Glacier National Park was a significant part of that trip. A friend flew out from Philadelphia that year to join in the adventure for about 10 days. We started out on the east side of the park camping at Many Glacier and finished up on the west side of the park. On the west side of the park we got a small but very nice cabin in the Polebridge area. At that time I think it was about $130/night. Who knows what it would cost these days.
During the day we explored Bowman Lake and Kintla Lake in Glacier National park. At that time, not many people even knew those to lakes were there. A forest fire on the east side of the park caused lots of visitors to look for other places to go. It was that year that the peace, quite and serenity of the Bowman and Kintla lakes started to disappear forever. Hoards of people flocked over to this section of the park with a portion of the east side closed.
After a long day exploring this area of the park we decided to head over to the Polebridge Mercantile and then go next door to the Northern Lights Saloon for diner. As we came out of the Mercantile and headed over to the Northern Lights Saloon, I noticed the skies were starting to light up and turn fiery.
With the skies lighting up, it looked like an awesome photo opportunity was taking shape. I ran over to the car, grabbed the backpack with all the photo gear in it. Panting and a little out of breath, I opted to setup the panoramic gear since the color in the sky was pretty far off to the left of the Mercantile. The light faded quickly but I was able to get off a couple panoramic shots before the skies went dark. When the gear was safely back in the car, we headed back to the Northern Lights Saloon, enjoyed a tasty dinner and a few drinks at the bar until closing time.
What Formats Is This Delicate Arch Sunset Wall Art Print Available?
This Polebridge Mercantile Panoramic sunset print it available on paper, canvas, acrylic, metal and wood. On paper, canvas, acrylic and wood it is available in sizes up to 92×32.5 inches. On metal the largest size available is 84×26.5 inches.
If you will be purchasing a print to hang in an area with diffused lighting, any of these print substrates will look great. Those that are shiny including metal, acrylic and glossy or metallic or paper canvas will be much more vibrant that the paper and canvas matte versions. If you’ll be hanging the print in an area with bright direct natural or artificial light or exposed light bulbs then you’ll be better off with matte print that doesn’t reflect the light.
In addition to regular wall art prints, this image is available on shower curtains and Sherpa fleece blankets. These two items are very high quality and make great decorative additions to the bathroom or anywhere you might have a blanket. Bath towels are available to compliment the shower curtain.
If you need heavy duty tote bags for shopping or even going to the beach, this image comes on awesome tote bags. You can show it off on a phone case and protect your phone at the same time. If you’d like to wear it, you can order it on apparel including t-shirts and sweatshirts.
If you need something to do inside on a rainy day, this image is available on 500 and 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzles. The panoramic size of this image will not all fit on the jigsaw puzzle but you’ll be able to customize the portion of the image that goes on your puzzle.
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