Montana: Ranches & West Yellowstone
Western Montana looks like something out of an old western movie. Mountain peaks are the back drop in most directions with sprawling grassland between the mountain ranges. It almost looked like God used finger paint to carve the valley plains out between the mountains with creeks and rivers snaking through the center.
We made a stop north of Missoula at the National Bison Range to check out the bison, prong horn and antelope that call this historic preserve home. It was a National Preserve and part of the National Park system until 2022 when it was returned to the Confederate Salish and Kootenai Tribes. The range is now managed as a part of the confederation land, righting an unjust seizure of the land from the Flathead Reservation. It was a good stop and a fun drive across the range. Recommended for a 1-2 hr travel break if you’re ever passing through western Montana on I90 👍
Buffalo!
Pronghorn in the foreground and buffalo in the background. Didn’t know that the pronghorn is the fastest land animal in North America before this stop.
More pronghorn… they camouflage very well.
Visitor Center had a number of tribal links to the land and animals as well as a number of l ethnography.
Our rig didn’t fit in the parking lot too well but we parked right in front of the stack of elk and deer horns… what a view of the mountains.
From the Bison Range it was down the east side of the Bitterroot Range of west Montana toward Yellowstone. This is RANCH COUNTRY and we noted a big shift in how fenced off everything was, especially the water. Robert struggled since the rivers were few and largely inaccessible in Deer Lodge where we camped for 3 days waiting for our reservations for Yellowstone. Except for a few creeks that went from grass straight into the creek, so no rocky boarder like we have become accustomed to, providing ample ammunition for Robert’s air-plop rock throwing. Deer Lodge, Montana is all ranches and as we learned the contentious history of fencing off the water that closed down the open range of western Montana, which was a big deal.
One of the ranches that transitioned through from open-range to fenced ranches is the Grant-Khors Rach (National Historic Site). At its peak, this 10 million acre cattle empire was based in Deer Lodge and ran upward of 50,000 head of cattle from Canada down through the Rockies. Yes that was 10 million acres, which took some time to calculate how vast that truly was. The range was more free-range cattle days prior to all the fencing but this was an empire of beef! While Deer Lodge was a halfway point for our transition from Glacier to Yellowstone, we were pleasantly surprised to learn and explore the ranches of western Montana. We also caught some epic Montana sunsets and enjoyed the drive through the mountains and ranches to Yellow Stone.
Being from Florida we are accustomed to flat but that mountain view past the flat is what we have come to love on this western loop of the US.
The drive down was pretty good and offered some rocky passes to gawk at.
Parked at Elk Lodge, MT we go some surprisingly awesome sunsets. The sun disappears behind the mountains and about 20 minutes later the sky and opposite mountain range just caught fire!
This is a historic prison to the left and the restaurant we tired to eat at… kitchen closed at 8 but man the sunset!
The historic Grant'-Khors Ranch Barn with…. fire in the sky!
This barn had 14-16 different progressions of carriages. Some for speed, some for groups at a time and others for working through the fields and some were for supplies.
The main house!
Zoom in on the timeline… pretty cool history of western Montana represented.
Smithy shop!
This mama Longhorn wasn’t sure about us but there were a few absolutely huge Longhorn out on the range… didn’t have the camera but didn’t stop my jaw from dropping. HUGE!
More color in tonight’s sunset!
Jr Ranger Books Complete!
Final sunset from the RV!
Michele got these doggies rollin and pushed us down range to Yellowstone!
Found the Warner Brother’s Water Tower out here ???
This is the 4th largest statue in America. It’s a statue Mary, or Our Lady of the Rockies atop the butte outside of Butte, MT in 1985. Sorry camera zoom wasn’t too good but it was quite large.
Picture this turn in a 40ft RV towing an SUV… go get it Michele!
Swung into Idaho for a bit before taking Targhee Pass back into Montana and Yellowstone.
