March is a great time in the park. The days are longer, the sun starts to regain some of its warmth, yet there’s still plenty of snow and the temperatures drop low enough to have a little of that zesty winter zip. It gets a little crisp in the morning, and pinches me alive.

I’ve shot this mountain from so many spots, and from this spot so many times. It’s a great place to wile away a morning, or several, and spend some time with a mountain. The lake here sometimes has a great reflection, and the morning light on the mountain can be stupendous. It’s one of those places I return to again and again.

This winter morning I shot the mountain from before dawn to well into mid-day. I was drawn to the windblown patterns in the foreground, and thought it interesting how they mimicked the shape of the mountain; little mirrors, aren’t they though?

Black and white photo of Mount Sanford, one of the highest peaks in the Wrangell Mountains, at dawn, from a small frozen kettle pond. Winter snow creates patterns on the frozen lake. Mt. Sanford, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska.