What Are The St. Mary Wetlands And Where Are They?
The St. Mary wetlands are on the edge of St. Mary Lake in Northern Montana. St. Mary Lake is located on the east side of Glacier National Park. The St. Mary wetlands are located adjacent to St. Mary Lake. Strong storms at Glacier National Park can bring waves surging over the lake shore and often scatter large amount of driftwood and drift logs in the wetlands area.
In order to get to the St. Mary Wetlands you’ll need to go to the St. Mary section of Glacier National Park. It is along the Going To The Sun Road. In order to access that road during the summer, you’ll need to get special Going To The Sun Road passes or plan to head into the park before 6am or after 4pm if you don’t have a pass for the Going To The Sun Road.
Once you get that taken care of you’ll want to head to the Wild Goose Island overlook parking area and hike down toward the shore of St. Mary Lake until you find the wetlands area. If you do go to this location it is a good idea to take bear spray with you. I’ve run into grizzly bears in this area over the years.
What Is It Like To Travel To The St. Mary Wetlands At Glacier National Park?
In order to get to Glacier National Park you’ll either need to plan a road trip or fly out to the area and get a rental car. The closest airport is the Glacier Park Airport in Kalispell, Montana. While that is the most convenient airport, the cost to fly there and the shortage of rental cars may lead you to look for another airport and a cheaper location to rent a car. Once you’ve got the travel arrangements all set you’ll need to find a place to stay somewhere around Glacier National Park.
From the Glacier National Park Airport, the drive to the Wild Goose Island parking area is about 66 miles and will take a couple of hours if you have passes for the Going To The Sun Road. If you will drive mostly outside the park, it will take you around 2.5 hours to get there from the airport. The drive will be about 130 miles.
If you plant to spend much time on the east side of Glacier National Park, you’ll probably want to find lodging on the east side of the park. Staying on the east side will help to minimize your travel time to the St. Mary wetlands and other awesome sights on the east side of Glacier.
Sunrise is a popular time to photograph the Wild Goose Island area of Glacier National Park but isn’t usually horribly crowded at sunrise. Later in the day the parking area may fill often. There is not a lot of hiking to be done from this parking area so chances are there will be a fair amount of turnover and you’ll be able to find a spot at some point during the day if you don’t go for sunrise.
What Does It Take To Get A Wall Art Quality Photo Of The St. Mary Wetlands?
If you want to go to Glacier and come away with a wall art quality photo from the St. Mary Wetlands, sunrise may be the best time to go. The Wild Goose Island overlook in the St. Mary section of Glacier National Park is a very popular spot for sunrise photos. If you plan to go there for sunrise, you may want to plan to stick around for a while to explore and photograph the wetlands area as well. Lots of people may show up for sunrise. Most will leave right after they snap the postcard shot they came for. You may have the area down by the lake to yourself when everyone leaves.
The weather at Glacier National Park can be perfectly calm. Wicked storms can roll through this area of the park too. Most any weather conditions can make for awesome photos in this area of the park so long as it doesn’t get too dark. A mix of stormy clouds and sun can look incredible at the Wild Goose Island Overlook. Calm wilds and clear or partly cloudy skies can make for great sunrise reflection photos as well. The wetlands area is best photographed when winds are fairly calm so you can get the mountains reflecting in the wetlands.
Your best bet for photographing the Wild Goose Island area at Glacier National Park is to go at sunrise unless there will be torrential rains or no chance of the sun peeking through the clouds. If there is any chance the sun will shoot through the clouds you should head over. Calmer winds will be better for photographing the wetlands but since the area is more protected than the lake the water in the wetlands stays calmer than the surface of St. Mary Lake.
What Is The Best Gear For Photographing The Glacier Park St. Mary Wetlands?
If you will be photographing the wetlands by St. Mary Lake at Glacier National Park at sunrise or sunset, chances are you’ll want to have a tripod. I always recommend a tripod for any landscape photography but you’ll definitely want to use one at sunrise when the light is low.
For the wetlands area a DSLR or mirrorless with a fairly wide angle lens would be sufficient for most photos and compositions in there. a lens that goes somewhere between 17mm and 105mm would be a good all purpose lens to have. While the wetlands area in particular doesn’t lend itself very well to panoramic photos, the Wild Goose Island Overlook does. Other areas down along the edge of St. Mary Lake are also good spots for panoramic photography.
What Is The Story Behind This Wall Art Photo Of The St. Mary Wetlands At Glacier Park?
This photo print of the wetlands by St, Mary Lake at Glacier National Park was taken in the summer of 2018. I was on an extended road trip through the west through Grand Teton National Park, Yellowstone National Park and the Canadian Rockies among other places including Glacier National Park.
I’d been to the Wild Goose Island numerous times and was looking for some new photo locations in that area. After sunrise I decided to hang out down by the lake and enjoy the peace a serenity that used to be experienced everywhere in the park before the massive crowds swarmed to Glacier in recent years.
After a few sunrise photos from the overlook and down at the lake, I started hiking around the lake shore a bit. The ground was wet and spongy. There were drift logs laying around the edge of the wetlands. Some were stable. Some not so much. I did my best to stay out of the water and the marsh by walking on the sometimes unstable drive logs that washed in there during windy storms over St. Mary Lake.
Soon after sunrise, the mountains were still glowing a bit. The winds were blowing slightly but the water seen in this photo is a much smaller and more protected pond than the giant St. Mary Lake that fees it. With the waters calm, the mountains still glowing a bit in the morning sun and a lush landscape in and around the wetlands, there was a great scene to photograph. I snapped a number of photos here and this was among the best.
What Formats Is This Glacier National Park St. Mary Wetlands Wall Art Print Available?
This wall art print of the Wetlands At St. Mary Lake as sunrise is available in print sizes up to 40×60 inches. It comes on paper, canvas, acrylic, wood and metal. If it will be hung in areas with bright natural or direct artificial lighting, something with a matte finish would be the best bet for a print. If it will be hung in an area with more diffused lighting, a matte finish would work well as would something with a more glossy or shiny finish would look great. This would include metal prints, acrylic prints, canvas or paper with a glossy finish or paper with a metallic finish.
If home decor is more your thing, then a shower curtain, Sherpa fleece blanket or a set of throw pillows would make an excellent choice.
If you’d like something that would show off the image in your daily life, a t-shirt or sweatshirt would make an excellent choice. Canvas tote bags are really durable and perfect for carrying groceries. If you just got the latest cel phone and need a case for it, this image is available on a wide variety of phone cases as well.
Finally, it comes on 500 and 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzles that make great gifts. Should there be another COVID lock-down, why not fill your time working on a beautiful jigsaw puzzle with a scene from Glacier National Park?
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