A selection of the Beacon's best imagery from the past year
By Hunter D'Antuono
A snowshoe hare peaks out from around a tree at Logging Lake in Glacier National Park on June 28, 2025. Hunter D’Antuono | Flathead Beacon
The Beacon’s 2025 photographic landscape stretched from the stark expanses of the Blackfeet Nation, to the marbled halls of the state Capitol, across the vast waters of Flathead Lake, to the tops of Glacier’s highest peaks, and onto protester-filled streets. The year delivered its share of turbulence in both politics and nature. Montana’s dynamic range reinforces photography is as much an art of capturing moments as it is an exercise in distillation. Of 50,000+ presses of the shutter this year, only about 5,000 of the resultant images made the cut for toning, captioning and filing into the archives. Those 5,000 frames were further culled to less than 50 for the end-of-year gallery.
The rotunda ceiling of the Capitol in Helena on Jan. 16, 2025. Hunter D’Antuono | Flathead BeaconSen. Mike Cuffe enjoys a burger in the Senate Chambers in the Capitol in Helena on Jan. 16, 2025. Hunter D’Antuono | Flathead BeaconRep. Tom Millett speaks to the House Judiciary Committee with his copy of the Montana and U.S. Constitutions on the podium at The Capitol in Helena on Jan. 16, 2025. Hunter D’Antuono | Flathead BeaconDeputy Sergeant-at-Arms Craig Fraley at his post outside the Senate Chambers in the Capitol in Helena on March 25, 2025. Hunter D’Antuono | Flathead BeaconThe wheels of a timber harvester in the Round Star Project area west of Whitefish on Jan. 22, 2025. Hunter D’Antuono | Flathead BeaconBison caretakers Joe LaPlant and Adrian Costel prepare to load a harvested bison from the Blackfeet Bison Program herd onto a truck on the prairie east of Browning on Feb. 6, 2025. Hunter D’Antuono | Flathead BeaconEli Neill holds the heart of a bison during a Blackfeet Bison Program harvest at AMS Ranch east of Browning on Feb. 6, 2025. Hunter D’Antuono | Flathead BeaconSuper 1 Foods grocery store reflected in a puddle of snowmelt in Kalispell on Feb. 24, 2025. Hunter D’Antuono | Flathead BeaconNatalie Idleman models in a natural cold plunge pool in Lakeside for the Style section of the spring 2025 edition of Flathead Living on Feb. 25, 2025. A chair is framed by a hole in the wall of one of the upstairs rooms of the 19th century Scandinavian Methodist church in Kalispell on March 11, 2025. Hunter D’Antuono | Flathead BeaconLiam Benson of the Bigfork Vikings pitches at the inaugural game at Flathead Beacon Field in Bigfork on April 17, 2025. Hunter D’Antuono | Flathead BeaconLena Camero and about 40 others gathered to protest the detention of Beker Rengifo del Castillo at the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol Station in Whitefish on April 24, 2025. Rengifo del Castillo is a Venezuelan asylum seeker who had taken up residence in the Flathead Valley. Hunter D’Antuono | Flathead BeaconPaddlers with Montana Silver Lining and the Montana Canoe Club paddle a double hulled canoe on Flathead Lake in Big Arm on May 25, 2025. Hunter D’Antuono | Flathead BeaconAvalanche lily on Blacktail Mountain on May 17, 2025. Hunter D’Antuono | Flathead BeaconA rotary snow blower parked on Logan Pass in Glacier National Park on May 19, 2025. Hunter D’Antuono | Flathead BeaconA young archer collects fired arrows from around beaded targets in a field at Iinnii Days in Browning on June 5, 2025. Hunter D’Antuono | Flathead BeaconA man is arrested by police at the “No Kings Protest” at Depot Park in Kalispell on June 14, 2025. Similar protests against President Trump and his administration took place on around the nation. Hunter D’Antuono | Flathead BeaconA cat and birds perched on a fenceline off of Four Mile Drive in Kalispell on June 25, 2025. Hunter D’Antuono | Flathead BeaconSunrise reflects on the glassy waters of Logging Lake in Glacier National Park on June 28, 2025. Hunter D’Antuono | Flathead BeaconBowman Lake, Mount Carter and Rainbow Glacier as viewed from the summit of Rainbow Peak in Glacier National Park on July 8, 2025. Hunter D’Antuono | Flathead BeaconUnderwater view of an old tree in Bowman Lake in Glacier National Park on July 9, 2025. Hunter D’Antuono | Flathead BeaconIndian Relay team member Devyn Campbell of the Blackfeet Nation stretches against a horse trailer ahead of the races at North American Indian Days in Browning on July 11, 2025. Hunter D’Antuono | Flathead BeaconAn Indian Relay racer leaps from his horse at the end of a lap at North American Indian Days in Browning on July 11, 2025. Hunter D’Antuono | Flathead BeaconThe Brothers Comatose perform at Under the Big Sky music festival in Whitefish on July 18, 2025. Hunter D’Antuono | Flathead BeaconLeigh Lake, Snowshoe Peak, “A” Peak, and Granite Lake in the Cabinet Mountain Wilderness on July 20, 2025. Hunter D’Antuono | Flathead BeaconLow water levels in Chain Lake on ranch land in the Heart Butte area of the Blackfeet Reservation on July 28, 2025. The region suffered from drought until unseasonably heavy late summer rains provided relief. Hunter D’Antuono | Flathead BeaconBoats take their positions at the Montana Cup sailing tournament at dawn on Flathead Lake on Aug. 3, 2025. The annual competition attracts dozens of sailing crews from around Montana and Idaho. Hunter D’Antuono | Flathead BeaconContract school bus driver Gerard Byrd at the wheel of one of his buses at his home in Martin City on Aug. 28, 2025. Gerard ferried students throughout the Canyon for 42 years, driving a total of some 1.2 million miles on some the worst roads in Montana. Hunter D’Antuono | Flathead BeaconHeavy rain on a Kalispell city street on Sept. 13, 2025. Hunter D’Antuono | Flathead BeaconRacers speed away from the starting line at the Keller Ranch Snowmobile Grass Drags in Kalispell on Sept. 20, 2025. Hunter D’Antuono | Flathead BeaconA man approaches a herd of horses grazing in view of Chief Mountain near Babb on Sept. 29, 2025. Hunter D’Antuono | Flathead BeaconFallen maple leaves in morning light in Woodland Park in Kalispell on Oct. 9, 2025. Hunter D’Antuono | Flathead BeaconSound engineer Toby Scott pictured in his recording studio in downtown Whitefish on Oct. 17, 2025. Scott recorded and mastered much of rock legend Bruce Springsteen’s music over the course of his career. Hunter D’Antuono | Flathead BeaconA “No Kings” protest along the Kalispell Bypass on Oct. 18, 2025. Similar protests against President Trump and his administration took place on around the nation. Hunter D’Antuono | Flathead BeaconDonna Roberts, age 99, is pictured with her baseball memorabilia at her daughter’s home in Frenchtown on Nov. 1, 2025. Roberts, then Stageman, played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, which existed from 1943 to 1954. Hunter D’Antuono | Flathead BeaconAfton Hatch (15) of the Polson Pirates celebrates his team’s 4-0 victory with fans at the Class A State Championship against the Whitefish Bulldogs at Polson High School on Nov. 1, 2025. Hunter D’Antuono | Flathead BeaconGlacier Wolfpack celebrates their AA State Championship win, besting the Billings West Golden Bears 16-3 at Legends Stadium in Kalispell on Nov. 21, 2025. Hunter D’Antuono | Flathead BeaconAn inversion over the Flathead Valley as viewed from near the summit of Big Mountain at Whitefish Mountain Resort on Nov. 30, 2025. Hunter D’Antuono | Flathead BeaconA washed-out bridge on Farm to Market Road over Libby Creek in Libby on Dec. 12, 2025. Persistent rains and snowmelt caused historic flooding in Lincoln County and around Northwest Montana. Hunter D’Antuono | Flathead Beacon Evermay Mitchell sits with a wooden urn containing the ashes of her son Riley McConnell in her Kalispell home on Dec. 15, 2025. McConnell, age 20, died from a fentanyl overdose on June 14, 2025. Hunter D’Antuono | Flathead BeaconA powerful windstorm with gusts up to 70 mph produces massive waves on Flathead Lake at Wayfarers State Park in Bigfork on Dec. 17, 2025. Hunter D’Antuono | Flathead BeaconA tree toppled by a windstorm crushed the roof of the Conrad Mansion’s gazebo in Kalispell on Dec. 17, 2025. Hunter D’Antuono | Flathead Beacon
