Bill Muhlenfeld is owner and publisher of Distinctly Montana magazine and other publications. He lives in Bozeman with his wife and co-owner, Anthea George, and always finds time to enjoy the great outdoors, when he is not writing about it...

“If you will stay here awhile I will promise you strange sights. You shall walk on water; all these brooks and rivers and ponds shall be your highway. You shall see the whole earth covered a foot or more deep with purest white crystals . . . and all the trees and stubble glittering in icy armor.” ~ Henry David Thoreau; 1859

Winter gets a bad rap; but can any weather be more uninteresting than, say, San Diego? In Montana we hold fast to the change of seasons and the shift of our attitudes and perspective. In winter Montana pushes back. Our population sinks to near-norm after the summer and fall crowding; and we welcome the emptiness, even the gray-and-white bleakness of the mountains and plains. Shelter and home take on new meaning in the cold and dark. Friends and family regroup, sharing fireside respite, while conversation seems more earnest and meaningful. Comfy inside, the warm winter sun soon brings joy to the heart and breaks one’s cabin fever with bouts of blue sky living-- hiking, snowshoeing, skiing and the like. We more appreciate our breath now that we can see it.

Winter is “distinctly” Montana. It is probably the key reason why our state is third from the bottom in population density, just seven people to the square mile, far less than our cattle count. Winter makes Montana a secret-- special, spacious and secure.

We hear San Diego is quite nice, but we’ll keep our winters.