The natural environment and history of Kalispell’s West Valley area
by Skip Via
skip@westvalleynaturalists.org
A few days ago, driving around West Valley, I remarked on the beauty of the hoarfrost that had coated some Ponderosa pines along the roadside. That got me wondering about the nature of hoarfrost and how it forms. It turns out that some of what I have been calling hoarfrost is, in fact, not hoarfrost, but rather rime ice. The difference is not important for the casual observer, but it can be important meteorologically.
Continue Reading →By Skip Via
skip@westvalleynaturalists.org
Walking through the woods in a graupel shower this afternoon prompted me to do a little more research on the phenomenon. Just what is graupel, anyway, and how does it differ from other forms of frozen precipitation?
Continue Reading →by Skip Via
skip@wastvalleynaturalists.org
Pat Jaquith’s lovely Winter Wonders post prompted me to post these images taken on 1/7/21 at the Happy Valley State Trust Lands (see Locations) after a light snow melt on a bluebird afternoon.
by Pat Jaquith
pat@westvalleynaturalists.org
Snow bales? Ice needles? Hoar frost? Snow serpents? Pink snow? From dawn to dark, winter weather provides us with lots to marvel at.
Continue Reading →by Skip Via
skip@westvalleynaturalists.org
On a walk though the Pig Farm State Trust Lands (see Locations) on December 4, we noticed a phenomenon that made us wonder what was happening with the rocks and soil along the trails. Here’s hoping someone out there can shed some light on the process(es) that were going on.
Continue Reading →by Dr. Lex Blood, Community Activist, Conservationist, Professor Emeritus/Flathead Valley Community College
The West Valley Naturalists sponsored a geology field trip in May 2014. Dr. Lex Blood led this field trip; for more than 40 years Lex Blood has served as Flathead Valley geologist, geographer, educator, conservationist. After a brief introduction we car-pooled and explained the “story behind the landscape” as we traveled through the West Valley area. For background information on the geology of the Flathead Valley please visit: http://www.flatheadwatershed.org/natural_history/geology.shtml
Continue Reading →by Skip Via
skip@westvalleynaturalists.org
Mike Koopal, Executive Director of the Whitefish Lake Institute, pointed us to some exceptional resources for learning more about the Flathead Valley watershed and the numerous lakes and streams that make up some of the most beautiful areas of the west valley area and the rest of Montana.
Continue Reading →by Mike Koopal, Executive Director, Whitefish Lake Institute
mike@whitefishlake.org
(Ed. note: The Mystery of Tally Lake was presented to the West Valley Naturalists meeting on March 2, 2020. We are grateful to Mike for allowing us to post it here.)
Continue Reading →by Skip Via
skip@westvalleynaturalists.org
If you have driven around western Montana, you may have the feeling that you’re always in a valley between two mountain ranges. There’s a reason for that. It’s called Basin and Range Topography.
Continue Reading →by Skip Via
skip@westvalleynaturalists.org
You see it everywhere in the valley–lining the bottom of creek beds, along hiking trails, layered throughout road cuts, on the shores surrounding Tally Lake, in the cliffs around Flathead Lake, piled at the corners of plowed fields, covering fireplace hearths and floors, in the pavement of many area roads and parking lots, and often in your yard when you are trying to dig a new garden bed (especially if you live on a glacial drumlin, as I do). It’s the predominant rock in Glacier National Park a few miles to our east.
It’s argillite, the colorful rocks and tiered strata that were formed during the Precambrian period over 500 million years ago–and western Montana is one of the best places in the world to see it.
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