When I was home visiting Alex a few weeks ago, our church pastor mentioned he recently spent time in Montana. He shared an interesting experience he had at Cliff and Wade Lakes and spoke of the bluest water he had ever seen in a lake. When church was over, I immediately looked up where the lakes were and realized it was not too far away from where we were going to stay. It was a sign: we had to go!
The lakes were not overtly advertised - no big billboard boasting the bluest water this side of the Caribbean. You had to be confident in where you were going. There was some signage, but it was subtle and easily missed. After leaving a main highway, you drove through a parking area for those wanting to fish in the Madison River and then for several more miles on a relatively flat unmarked gravel and dirt road. It seemed like we were driving to the middle of a ranch as there wasn't a single tree until we began our descent into a forest bed and got within sight of the lakes.
Sure enough, the water was Carribean blue as promised. Coming from PA where you are lucky if you can see more than a foot into the water, the blue was so remarkable and inviting. We sat for a while just soaking up the majesty and eating our packed lunches. The beautiful blue water was surrounded by alpine trees that graced the hills up to the completely un-treed land above. There were many people out on kayaks and blow-up paddleboards. The only swimmers were children maybe because of the rather nippy temperatures (they can be so fearless).
Eventually because the water was so blue, we gave into our desire to swim in its beauty. We made our way into the water, trying to look graceful as we traversed over the rock bed bottom inflicting its pain on our feet. We were met with not only chilly water temperatures but a chillier air temperature as well because the sun dipped behind a cloud shortly after we committed to the rock bed. We did not make it much further than our stomachs but we stood there motionless - watching the fish swim at our feet. It is certainly not everyday I get to be in clear blue water surrounded by pine trees staring down at the fish darting by my feet. It's humbling to think of all the decisions that went in to making today happen and all of the insecurities I have had to face in order to do so.
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