Water is essential to life and as much of the terrain in the Rocky Mountain West is arid to varying degrees, annual snowfall is crucial to plants and wildlife throughout the year.  Over millions of years, along with geologic movements, snowmelt has created thousands of creeks and rivers, without which the diversity of wildlife could not survive.  Although not exclusively from the mountain states, these two galleries portray many of my favorite river and creek photos from recent travels.

This gallery has images from the Canadian Rockies, Yellowstone, Glacier, the Shoshone National Forest and the state of Michigan.