Darin Robison, the owner of the Montana Treehouse Retreat, always had a very special connection with his Grandma Mary who has passed within the past few years. When we thought about our initial idea of getting into the trees, we wanted to make sure it was a grand entrance.

One thing to know about Darin, is that he doesn't just do things the easy way. He approaches each building project as an individual work of art. When he remembered that the huge douglas fir tree from Grandma Mary's house (which is now cousin Curt's) needed to be removed, he jumped at the challenge to take his excavator down to Echo Lake and dig up the tree from the roots up.

He had a vision of wrapping a spiral staircase entrance around this tree which he'll set on a concrete foundation. It was important for Darin to get the root footprint of the tree so as to be a more dramatic effect. Thus, more work involved.

He has spent hours and hours harvesting, trucking the tree from Echo Lake, power washing, peeling and cleaning this tree so we could start the build.

We have also brought in our good friend John Colliander of Treeworks out of West Glacier to help with the build and to help transform this tree into the most badass staircase one could imagine! Can't wait to see it come together.

More soon!