Spoiler alert – they’re just rocks…
The picture of “Lake McDonald” below is NOT REAL. Literally.
(The above photo is a paid & licensed stock image).
It’s part of a growing trend that stock agencies are now enjoying where they’re selling the output from machine-learned generative AI “artists”, feeding them prompts, to those who want to buy.
Sadly, in this case, those machines have learned from the images us humans have previously published – which were just as made up as the fiction they’re now producing on-demand.
When your reputation goes before you, it can be difficult to shake it off – especially if it represents only one aspect of what you’re all about. As true as that is for us humans, it is for the places we visit, especially in an era where everything shared online has to be bigger, brighter, better, “more” than anything that went before.
And in that modern flex of human need to out-do one another, we often seem to find ourselves hunting out places for the wrong reasons. A huge part of that, in my view, is the fault of those previous visitors sensationalising and “enhancing” everything they’ve seen to an extreme level.
Enter, Lake McDonald.
Situated within Glacier National Park in Montana, USA – the small village of Apgar gets visitors by the busload each and every day; many of whom are there to see the “lake with the rainbow rocks”.
On arrival, you can’t possibly miss how stunning the entire area is (it’s a National Park for a reason, of course!) and despite Google Maps deciding to delete one of the jetties (above), luckily Apple still know it’s there with both of them offering incredible views and access to a mountain lake that’s full of life.
No camera can make this place look bad – an iPhone (above and below) is more than capable of capturing how awesome the surroundings are up here.
No weather can spoil your day – a storm simply brings a different look to the place, but provides scenery that’s no less incredible.
And no time of day here really “beats” any other. At all hours on the clock, from dawn to dusk, and even through the star-filled skies of the night – Both Lake McDonald, and Glacier National Park as a whole, offer up truly stunning views that any photographer (and any non-photographer for that matter) would enjoy.
So what is it with these rocks?
I’m going to guess that some time ago, someone – maybe a photographer – noticed that the array of pebbles at the shoreline were indeed sliiiiiiiiiightly more colourful than those on your average beach.
Indeed, it’s actually “a thing” – a geological thing – the different tones relate to how much iron is in each rock, and how much exposure they’ve each had to the air, over time.
Maybe when they got home, having looked at their photograph of the amazing jetty with its pleasure boats and the pebbles of the clear water underneath, they were a little disappointed to see they looked – well – “rocky”, and mainly brown and grey.
Maybe they decided to sneak that saturation slider up – you know, juuuuuust a little bit…?
(The above photo is a paid & licensed stock image).
Then, suppose someone else saw that photo and decided they wanted to go there to see them too…
Only, when they got there, the “rainbow rocks” were nowhere to be seen – just a collection of slightly different tones of reddish greys and browns with the odd hint of another subtle colour every now and then.
(The above photos are actual iPhone images with no manipulation)
Sigh.
What to do… What to dooooo…?
Well – not wanting to be “outdone”, or feel like they’ve failed and not had as “epic” an “experience” as those who visited prior, perhaps they then did their own “tweaks” to their image?
After all, they were #LivingTheirBestLife for their adoring fans, right?
In the industry, I guess we’d say “pump the saturation”, “smash the contrast”, “clarify the ____ out of it” and all the other dials on that bottom half of the picture…
Well, that’s better – right?
And so, it continues.
I saw it with my own eyes. I saw someone take a shot with their phone, and ramp up all the dials to match not what was there, but what they’d gone there to see with their preconceived idea of what they expected to find.
So we’re doing this to ourselves. As an experiment, I posted the left hand image (above) to an Instagram story. A short while later, I posted the right hand one as well (meaning to get to it, people must have already tapped through the first), with a note that it was completely faked.
Guess which shot got all the “likes”…?
All that said, I’m reassured by two things here.
First, this hype and over-doing is being called out online.
A quick search across Reddit will prove that – with most able to call out the B.S.
I’m also seeing more and more people calling out AI generated images and demanding reality over one-click fantasies. Authenticity is becoming valued once again, and maybe that will make us all realise that real is something that’s truly priceless.
Second, those fake rainbow rocks are not the reason many of us would ever visit Lake McDonald – or any other lake in this region for that matter.
Once you get away from the throngs of stone-skimming visitors – step a few paces down the shoreline, take a deep breath of fresh mountain air, and really open your eyes to see what’s before you.
The scenery here, the weather systems, the light, they’re all incredible in their own right – add them together and it’s a perfect recipe for a view that will take that deep breath you just took right away again.
(And yes, for transparency, the temporary signs at the end of the Jetty went. Perhaps if people stayed away from others’ property and stopped being ready to sue for a dime, they wouldn’t be needed in the first place?)
So you’re at a mountain lake.
Grab a boat for a few hours, or a kayak for the day – there are plenty waiting there – and go explore the shoreline of this amazing mountain lake. It’s easy enough to get away from those “crowds” here and find a genuine place of solitude.
Or…
Stick to the jetty and see what the weather can bring to that picture-perfect scene before your eyes in one of Montana’s finest natural areas. (Apgar also has a great campground, right on the shoreline by the village.)
For me, it’ll always be those crazy early mornings or super late evenings that bring out the best of the lake views. With only one, maybe two, people around – it feels like you’ve just discovered a mountain paradise all on your own (with a lot of spare boats available for just you, I guess).
Looking for something more remote?
On my last trip up to Glacier National Park, following an horrendous journey along the newly-opened-but-should-have-been-shut Going To The Sun road, we decided to head somewhere a bit different.
Bowman Lake.
Only 22 miles as the crow flies from the south shores of each lake, it looks like an easy hop further north to get to a much quieter location with similar scenery. In spring, this would be a challenge with wet, rutted, mud roads – but maybe worth the trek.
The drive is actually only 33 miles between the two, but with those trails, this needed a different choice of vehicle.
Enter… Jeff the Jeep.
I mean, it was hardly taxing for a Rubicon – and let’s be honest, people are somehow getting huge boat trailers up to the slipway at Bowman at some point in the year – but it’s a fun drive nonetheless.
“Bring it back clean” – right.
Arriving pre-dawn to the rain, it had the feel of Lake McDonald before Apgar became as developed as it now is. It’s hardly a secret location, but maybe the extra travel is just annoying enough to keep the crowds away.
And yes, a flip-up back door on the Jeep makes for the perfect rainy-day shooting hideout.
Grey skies prevailed, and as the mountain outlines faded it was time to call it and start the drive home.
Unusually, however, I wasn’t disappointed.
Sure, the weather hadn’t exactly played ball – but it was a new escape for when Lake McDonald (inevitably) gets way too busy in the future. It’s not a “secret hideaway” (it’s a boat launch and camping site!) but I’m finding myself wanting to get to new places that are just that little bit of extra effort further these days, and enjoying the journey regardless of what I find at the end.
Or, for that matter, on the way back…
Where I found GOLD.
Edible gold, to be precise.
That’s right – the Polebridge Mercantile (a definite stop-off for anyone travelling up the mountain tracks to Bowman) has its own little reward that needs to be celebrated: The Polebridge BREAKFAST ROLL.
I know what you’re all thinking – that’s hardly new, we’ve been eating breakfast rolls for years, decades, maybe even centuries?
But have you been eating ones where the egg and bacon are baked INSIDE THE BREAD? With no way in and no way out.
Nope – didn’t think so.
If only I could have flown a case of them back to London…
Speaking of food-based souvenirs, don’t forget that this entire area lays claim to an annual Huckleberry Festival – and while it’s Jay, Oklahoma that owns the title of “Huckleberry Capital of the World”, I’d say the guys in Montana are doing a pretty good marketing job themselves.
If only I liked them.
I mean, the Liquorice straws weren’t bad – but I think that’s more about me liking different coloured Red Vines than enjoying the not-quite-raspberry-not-quite-blueberry taste of those little purple balls.