Living Our Dream

Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument

We had a four-hour drive from Fairmont to our next stop in Billings, MT. Along the way, we hit a few showers with some interesting clouds as we drove through the hills of western Montana.

 

In Billings, we stayed at Billings Trailer Village RV Park. Trailer Village has full hookups including cable TV. There is a charge for Wi-Fi. The roads and pads are paved, and there is grass between the sites. The site width isn't too bad for a private campground, but having to park your tow vehicle or toad beside the RV takes up some of your space. The photo below shows our site at Trailer Village RV Park.

 

While in Billings, we visited with some old friends from church years ago back in Pittsburgh. At that time the Morup family led the puppet ministry of which Lora was a part. Seeing Mary and her daughter, Marianne, was great. We enjoyed dinner with them and appreciated their showing us around Billings.

While in Billings, we also drove about an hour to the east to see the Little Bighorn National Monument. Of course, the Battle of the Little Bighorn was where Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer and his soldiers were defeated by several thousand Indian warriors on June 25, 1876.

Outside the visitor center is a National Cemetery. Veterans of the U. S. Military and their immediate families are buried here. The cemetery was established in 1886, and there are soldiers from the Indian Wars through WWII and the Korean War.

When we arrived at the visitor center, there was a ranger talk in progress on the back porch. The rangers are always very knowledgeable, so it was a good way to learn more about the events that took place at the Little Bighorn River back in 1876.

Inside the visitor center, we watched a movie about the battle, then looked around the small museum. There was a display showing a typical 7th Cavalry soldier and one showing a typical Indian warrior.

 

The cavalryman was a reflection of America's diversity. Forty-two percent of the soldiers were foreign-born. The Army offered hope to immigrants for a new life, an opportunity to learn English, and an opportunity to learn about the customs of their newly-adopted country. They were probably under trained and were poorly equipped. For example, although repeating rifles had been around since the 1850s, the cavalrymen were still using single-shot rifles. On top of that, their rifles had a reputation for jamming when they overheated from being fired in rapid succession. Repeating rifles were considered to be too expensive.

The Indians were mostly Lakota-Souix and Cheyenne. They were well-trained in hunting, and those skills were applied to fighting. The Indians were fighting to preserve their nomadic way of life.

We also learned a little about the years of strife between the Euro-Americans and the Indians that led up to the Battle of the Little Bighorn. The conflict went back to the arrival of the first Europeans in North America. By the mid 1800s, settlers began moving west. The settlers had little regard for the sanctity of the Indians' culture, hunting grounds, or of the terms of former treaties.

In 1862, President Lincoln signed the Homestead Act providing free land to anyone who would settle and develop that land. Following the Civil War, emigrants resumed their westward migration with renewed vigor. Skirmishes with the Indians also increased.

The U. S. Government decided it was better to try to make peace with the Indians then try to fight them, so they signed a treaty with the Lakota, Cheyenne, and other tribes of the Great Plains giving the Indians a large area of land in western Wyoming. However, gold was discovered in the Black Hills in 1874, and large numbers of gold seekers flocked to the region in violation of the treaty.

The Army tried to keep the prospectors out of the Black Hills to no avail, and attempts to buy the Black Hills from the Indians were unsuccessful. When the Indians resumed raids on nearby settlements and on travelers, the Army was called in to enforce order.

In 1876, three expeditions against the Plains Indians departed from three separate western forts. General George Crook, Colonel John Gibbon, and General Alfred Terry, who led these expeditions, were to converge on a large group if Indians concentrated in eastern Montana.

General Crook met up with a large band of Indians at Rosebud Creek south of the intended rendezvous point. He was essentially defeated in the battle that ensued and was forced to stop to regroup. Meanwhile, Colonel Gibbon and General Terry, unaware of Crook's battle, joined forces north of the Little Bighorn River. General Terry ordered Lt. Colonel George Armstrong Custer to take the 7th Cavalry (about 700 men) and approach the area along the Little Bighorn where the Indians were congregated from the south while General Terry and Colonel Gibbon would approach from the north.

Custer's greatest fear was that the Indians would scatter before the Army had a chance to attack. Convinced the Indians had detected the presence of his troops, Custer ordered the attack on June 25 instead of waiting for General Terry and his forces to arrive a day later.

In order to prevent the Indians from scattering, Custer split his forces and sent Major Marcus Reno to approach the Indian camp from the south while he continued on to approach from the northeast. There are two main battle sites in the national monument connected by a road that is about five miles long. At what is currently the eastern end of the park, Major Reno attacked a group of Indians camped there, but was surprised by their large numbers. Reno was forced to retreat to the nearby woods where his men were pinned down.

We concentrated our visit on where Custer and his men made their Last Stand at the western end of the national monument near the visitor center. Since Custer and all the men in his immediate command (about 250) were killed, the precise details of his route after he left Major Reno and what occurred along the way are unknown. What is known is that he greatly underestimated the number of Indians and was undoubtedly overwhelmed.

Custer thought there were only about 800 Indian Warriors in the area along the Little Bighorn River. His assumption was based on old information. In reality, there were a total of 7,000 to 8,000 Indians camped there, and about 1,500 to 2,000 of them were warriors.

Custer and his last 41 remaining men took a stand on the hill overlooking the spot where the visitor center is now located. The photo below shows the Indians' view up the hill. The 7th Cavalry Memorial is at the top on the left, and the individual markers indicate the place where the men fell in battle on June 25, 1876. The bodies of the enlisted men are buried in a common grave at the base of the memorial at the top of the hill. Officers' bodies were moved to various cemeteries around the country. Custer is buried at West Point.

The museum had an excellent diorama depicting the Last Stand. Although the detail in the scene almost makes it look real, the standing figure is only about 8 inches tall.

The next photo shows the soldiers' view down into the valley from approximately the same vantage point as the diorama.

The next photo is a closeup of the marker indicating where Custer fell.

Also at the top of the hill there is also a memorial to the estimated 60 to 100 Indians who fell in the battle.

Although the Indians won a decisive victory at Little Bighorn, the death of Custer strengthened the resolve to control the Indians and force them onto reservations. Custer was a Civil War hero, and his death angered the country.

The Indians were led in the Battle of the Little Bighorn by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse. After the battle, Sitting Bull and many of his followers fled to Canada. He returned to the United States to surrender in 1881. He toured briefly with Buffalo Bill's Wild West, then returned to South Dakota where he was shot and killed by an Indian policeman in 1890.

Crazy Horse (whose name actually means "his horse is crazy"), led the war party that delayed General Crook at Rosebud Creek. Crazy Horse returned to the Little Bighorn and possibly may have also led the battle against Major Reno. After the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Crazy Horse continued to skirmish with the Army until his eventual surrender in 1877. He was stabbed by a soldier with a bayonet during a possible escape attempt later in 1877.

We had always heard about "Custer's Last Stand," and it was great to finally see where it took place and to learn why the battle was fought and to learn some of the details about the battle. It was also moving to learn about the soldiers who fought bravely in the face of overwhelming odds and about the Native Americans who fought bravely to preserve their traditions and way of life.

The next morning, we departed Billings and headed to our next destination. We'll tell you about it in our next post.

Deer Lodge, MT Part I: Grant-Kohrs Ranch

Deer Lodge is located about 25 miles north of the campground where we were staying in Fairmont, MT. Deer Lodge gets its name from the fact that deer gathered in the protected valley where a hot spring was located. Early settlers thought the travertine mound at the hot spring looked like an Indian tepee or lodge.

It turns out Montana had "Cattle Kings" as well as Copper Kings. Deer Lodge is the location of Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site. The ranch was built by French-Canadian fur trader Johnny Grant who later sold it to Cattle King Conrad Kohrs. Conrad Kohrs' land holdings once exceeded 1 million acres in Montana, Wyoming, and Canada. The 1,600 acre ranch has 80 historic buildings and is maintained by the National Park Service as a working ranch for purpose of preserving and interpreting the history of western cattlemen.

We started our visit to the ranch with a tour of the main house, which is shown in the photo below.

 

The volunteer who conducted the tour, who also happened to be a full-time RVer, was very knowledgeable. He gave an interesting narrative about the history of the ranch. The house has all original furnishings from the 1860s and 1870s. Unfortunately, photography isn't permitted inside the house, but the furnishings are very sophisticated. The family's day-to-day life was not lived as ranchers but as aristocrats.

The next photo shows the addition built onto the back of the house in 1890 by the Kohrs. They had the addition wired for electricity even though it wasn't available yet.

Johnny Grant came to the Deer Lodge Valley and began trading with the emigrants who were traveling west to Oregon and California. He found the emigrants would gladly trade two or more foot-sore, trail-weary cattle or horses for one fat, healthy animal. He would rest and fatten the tired animals, then trade them to next year's travelers.

The plentiful bunch grass of the Montana prairie and the relative protection of Deer Lodge Valley made this an ideal place for livestock. Although the prairie gets cold in winter, it gets little snow because it is in the shadow of the mountains. The winds keep the prairie grass relatively snow-free in winter so the animals can feed easily.

Johnny Grant married several Indian women from different tribes to establish alliances with the tribes. He ended up with 21 children. In 1862, he built "the first good house" (shown above) in the valley. Part of the house was a trading post.

As the Montana Territory matured, Grant, who was educated in the French language, was at a disadvantage because business contracts were written in English. He found he was frequently taken advantage of and discriminated against. In 1866, Grant sold his ranch in Deer Lodge to Conrad Kohrs and returned to Canada.

Conrad Kohrs was born in Holstein, which was part of Denmark at the time. Holstein would later become part of Germany and Kohrs considered himself to be German. Kohrs left home at age 15 and traveled to several countries. He came to the United States and eventually became a citizen in 1857.

Kohrs had learned the butcher trade and was doing a brisk business selling meat in mining camps. He bought the ranch from Johnny Grant so he could have a place to raise cattle for his butcher shops. In time, Kohrs' ranch would grow to where he would ship 10,000 head of cattle annually to the stock yards in Chicago.

John Bielenberg was Conrad Kohrs younger half brother and was a full partner in their diverse businesses. Bielenberg managed the daily operations of the ranch. He also cross-bred thoroughbred studs with native mares to produce cow ponies famed for their stamina.

The Grant-Kohrs National Historic Site has many interesting interpretive programs. One of our favorites was a talk by a volunteer about the chuck wagon, which is on the left of the photo below.

 

In the 1800s, most of cattle country was open range. Cattle roamed free to feed on prairie grass. In the spring, the cowboys would round up the calves for branding, and they would separate out the cattle that would be taken to market. The cattle had to be driven to the rail head to be shipped to the packing houses.

While at the ranch, cowboys slept in the bunkhouse, which is shown in the next photo. The bunkhouse had its own kitchen and dining area.

But on the cattle drive, the cowboys relied on the chuck wagon for their meals. Cooking was done outdoors over an open fire mostly in Dutch ovens or heavy iron skillets. The cook's responsibility on the cattle drive to get up early every day and start breakfast. After breakfast, he would have to hurry and pack up and drive the wagon on ahead of the cowboys and the herd. He would then set up, build a fire, and cook the next meal in time for the cowboys' arrival.

 

On the trail, there was always plenty to eat, but there wasn't much variety. The menu usually consisted of beans, rice, biscuits, and coffee. Every so often, they would camp near a town and the cook would restock his supplies. The cowboys might get to enjoy fresh eggs or milk; but there was no refrigeration, and they could only buy enough perishable food to last a day or two.

The ranch is in a beautiful setting in the valley surrounded by hills and mountains.

 

As we said, the ranch is a working ranch. Most of the work on the ranch is done with horses rather than with machines and tractors. The wagon in the next photo passed by on its way from completing some chores somewhere on the ranch.

 

The next photo is one of the many longhorn steers on the ranch. Longhorns are very hardy with a strong survival instinct enabling them to find food and water in difficult circumstances. These traits made them ideal for cold Montana winters.

What could be more appropriate for a tour of a ranch than learning how to rope a calf? In another fun, hands-on program, a ranger taught us how to hold and throw the lariat. In the next photo, it looks like Margery is going to just make it.

 

Paul tries his hand.

By the late 1800s, ranching was changing. The open ranges were being fenced and homesteaders were settling the land. Kohrs and Bielenberg began changing their methods of ranching to include summer haying and winter feeding. But with the death of his son in 1901, Kohrs began gradually winding down the cattle operation. By 1918, there were only a small number of cattle left on several hundred acres in Deer Lodge.

Conrad Kohrs died in 1920 and the ranch went to into a trust. Conrad Warren, who was Conrad Kohrs' grandson, was interested in ranching and went to work at the ranch as a hired hand in 1929. In 1932, the trust made him manager of the ranch. He did a good job bringing the ranch into the 20th century with modern methods, and he successfully guided the ranch through the depression and drought in the 1930s.

Conrad Warren bought the ranch from the trust in 1940. Although Conrad Warren never became the Cattle King that his grandfather was, he was well-respected in the cattle industry. In 1972, Conrad Warren sold the core of the ranch property to the National Park Service, and the ranch opened to the public in 1977.

We enjoyed the ranch so much we spent over three hours there. We were shocked when we checked our watches as we left. We still had more sightseeing to do in Deer Lodge, so look for our next post.

Glacier National Park Part II

After driving over the 6,646-foot elevation of Logan Pass, the visitor center parking lot was full, so we stopped at the first pull-off on the eastern side for a photo. The panoramic view below looking back toward Logan Pass on the far right.

We then drove another short distance to the east and stopped again at Lunch Creek. The creek flows down a natural stair step right along Going-to-the-Sun Road.

We were at Glacier at the right time for wildflowers. There were a lot blooming in the area of Lunch Creek as well as in many other locations.

 

The best view of a glacier from Going-to-the-Sun Road is from a viewpoint a few miles miles east of Logan Pass where you can see Jackson Glacier.

   

Our next stop was for about a 1.6-mile hike to St. Mary Falls, which is shown in the photo below. St. Mary Falls is along on the St. Mary River.

 

All the water in Glacier National Park is from snow melt and glacial run-off. As Margery found out earlier at McDonald Creek, the water is cold. Still, when we got to St. Mary Falls, there were several brave teens having a great time jumping off the bridge into the frigid water.

The St. Mary River flows into St. Mary Lake, which is another glacial lake at the eastern end of the park. At about 9 miles long, 1 mile wide, and 300 feet deep, St. Mary Lake is smaller than Lake McDonald, which is at the western side of the park. The next photo shows St. Mary Lake. The island is called Wild Goose Island and is one of the most photographed spots in Glacier National Park.

 

 

At the parking area where we stopped to see Wild Goose Island, we saw two guys on a motorcycle with a special seat on the back for their black lab. The dog was having his goggles adjusted.

 

When we got to the eastern entrance of the park, we stopped briefly at the visitor center, then headed back west. On our way back just before we reached Logan Pass, we saw people stopped along the road looking up the hill with binoculars. We pulled over and caught sight of several big horn sheep. They were pretty far away and we had to use a good bit of digital zoom, so they're not easy to see; but there are three of them in the photo below. There is one in the upper left of the photo, one in the lower right, and third one with its back toward the camera just to the right of the center pine tree.  It was our first sighting of big horn sheep in the wild.

 

As we went over Logan Pass we got stopped again for a construction delay, and it's a good thing we did. Otherwise, we would have probably driven right by the mountain goats sitting on the bank right along the road without seeing them. Mountain goats are the symbol of Glacier National Park, and seeing them was another first for us.

While we were stopped, we noticed small, unnamed waterfall on the opposite side of the road. There was an ice bridge part way up the falls. Ice and snow can persist for quite a while at the higher elevations.

Although there are other entrances to the park we didn't explore, Going-to-the Sun Road is definitely the highlight. Our visit to Glacier far exceeded our expectations. We were expecting it to be colder with more snow and ice fields. Instead we got a myriad of beautiful wild flowers, great scenery, wild animals we had never seen before, and warm temperatures. Glacier would warrant another visit in the future, but we'll keep the visit to August. The road over Logan Pass doesn't open until July; and, although it can snow there at any time of the year, serious snow can come as early as September!

We also had time to check out the town of Coram during our stay. We stopped at an interesting-looking shop called Montana Fur Trading.

 

The next photo shows the inside of the store with cow hides, buffalo skulls, a wolf hide, and a bear hide.

We also passed the metal sculpture just up the road from the campground several times and finally stopped for a photo. The eagle was at least 12 to 15 feet high perched on top of the log arch over the entrance to a ranch. It was very impressive.

From Glacier, we headed back south to I-90, then drove east. We'll have more about our adventures in our next post.

Glacier National Park Part I

It was only about an hour and a half drive from Polson to our next stop in Coram, MT. Coram is about 5 miles from the west entrance to Glacier National Park. In Coram, we stayed at North American RV Park. North American RV has mostly pull-through sites with full hookups and free Wi-Fi. Some sites have 30 amp electric and some have 50 amp. The roads and pads are gravel. The sites are a little narrow, but we did have enough room for our awning and slides. Although there is grass between the sites, our grass was a little sparse. U. S. Highway 2 that passes the campground is a very busy road so there is some traffic noise during the day, but the traffic diminishes to almost nothing at night. There is also a train track nearby, and we could hear an occasional train whistle. The photo below shows our site at North American RV Park.

 

Glacier National Park is located in the northwestern corner of Montana right along the Canadian border. Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada is a sister park to Glacier. Together, the two parks are known as Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park.

Glacier National Park contains the southern extensions of the Canadian Rockies. The national park is named more for the colossal glaciers that existed in the past rather than the relatively small glaciers that exist today. Glaciers have worn down the mountains to leave craggy peaks, they have scoured the sides of the mountains to form U-shaped valleys, and they have dammed up rivers to form lakes.

Visitors first started arriving in the area of Glacier National Park in the 1890s, and the national park was established in 1910. Early visitors to the park would take a stagecoach to Lake McDonald, then take a boat to a hotel built along the lake. They would also hike or ride horses to various other hotels or chalets scattered around the park. As the number of visitors grew, so did the demand for a road across the mountains. This demand led to the building of Going-to-the-Sun Road.

Going-to-the-Sun Road traverses the park in roughly an east-west direction and is about 50 miles long. The road was opened in 1932 after 11 years of construction. Building the road would be a huge undertaking today, but it is truly amazing what they were able to accomplish that many years ago. The road is a true engineering marvel and is listed as a National Landmark.

We started our drive through the park at the western end of Going-to-the-Sun Road. Lake McDonald is a glacial lake located a short distance inside the park. The lake is a little over 10 miles long, about 1½ miles wide, and 472 feet deep. The photo below shows Lake McDonald from the southwestern end. It was very windy the day we stopped for the photo, and the lake is big enough to allow the wind to kick quite a few whitecaps.

Lake McDonald is fed by McDonald Creek; and a short distance past the northeastern end of the lake, McDonald Creek tumbles over McDonald Falls.

A little farther along Going-to-the-Sun Road, we stopped at another area where there was a smaller falls and where we could walk down to the edge of the water.

   

Margery tested the water. It was COLD!

Much of the near bank of the creek was solid rock, and Paul was interested in how the water had carved numerous potholes.

Our next stop was at Avalanche Creek where there is a four-mile round trip hike to Avalanche Lake and a shorter, .8 mile nature trail loop called Trail of the Cedars. Because Going-to-the-Sun Road is currently undergoing a multi-year rehabilitation, we knew there may be construction delays. Therefore, we didn't want to run out of time later on, so we opted for the shorter Trail of the Cedars hike. The trail passes through a dense cedar forest. At the far end of the loop is Avalanche Creek Falls. The next photo shows us on the bridge overlooking Avalanche Creek Falls.

Shortly after passing Avalanche Creek, Going-to-the-Sun Road starts to climb. The next photo is looking southeast back along McDonald Creek in the lower left toward Lake McDonald. Notice the characteristic U-shape of the glacial valley. The snow-capped mountain is 8,987-foot Heavens Peak.

The Continental Divide runs through Glacier National Park. The Continental Divide is the line where all the water on one side flows to the Pacific Ocean and all the water on the other side ends up in the Atlantic (by way of the Gulf of Mexico). Glacier National Park is the location of a triple divide. The third divide is called the Hudson Bay Divide where the water flows northward to the Hudson Bay. The Going-to-the-Sun Road crosses the Hudson Bay Divide at Logan Pass. The next photo is looking east as we approached Logan Pass. The Hudson Bay Divide is out of the picture at the top of the hill on the left. The mountain in the distance seemed to be floating on clouds.

It is on the western side of Logan Pass where Going-to-the-Sun Road is currently undergoing renovation. The road is down to one lane in several areas, and there is alternating traffic flow. Although we had to stop several times, we never had to wait more than 5 or 10 minutes. Rather than being an inconvenience, it was an opportunity to stop for photos in areas where there were no pull-offs and where there would otherwise not be an opportunity to stop. We got out of the car to take the next photo during one of the construction delays. There is a pile of snow on the left and the Going-to-the-Sun Road along the edge of the hill on the right.

 

Going-to-the-Sun Road carries a lot of traffic. One thing the park is doing to reduce traffic is to provide free shuttle buses. Since Going-to-the-Sun Road is so winding and narrow (vehicle length is limited to 21 feet going over Logan Pass), the park uses mini-buses.

The park also provides guided tours (for a fee) in restored red jammer tour buses originally built in the 1930s by the White Company. The original buses were used until 1999 when inspections raised questions about safety. The White Company went out of business in 1980, so Ford undertook renovating all 32 of the park's buses in a project that ended up costing $800,000. The buses were completely disassembled, repaired, and rebuilt. The restored and modified red bodies were placed onto new E-450 chassis with economical bi-fuel engines capable of running either on gasoline or clean-burning propane. Brakes were upgraded to four-wheel disc ABS systems, and glass and lights were brought up to today's standards. The next photo shows one of the restored red jammer buses.

 

There is a very popular visitor center at Logan Pass; but even with the free shuttle buses and red jammer tour buses to reduce the number of private vehicles, the parking lot at the Logan Pass was filled to capacity. So we continued on down the other side of the pass on Going-to-the-Sun Road. We have a lot more to report about the eastern side of Glacier National Park, so look for our next post.

Seattle, WA to Polson, MT

We left Bothell and the Seattle area and headed east. We were headed for Glacier National Park, but we made a couple of interim stops along the way.

Our first stop was Suncrest RV Resort in Moses Lake, WA, which was about a three-hour drive from Bothell. Suncrest RV has paved roads and pads with grass between the sites. Some of the sites are pull-throughs and some are back-ins. We got a pull-through so we wouldn't have to unhook the car since we were only staying one night. There was a little noise from I-90, but it was hot and the air conditioner pretty much drowned it out. Suncrest RV has full hookups and free Wi-Fi. The photo below shows our site at Suncrest RV.

 

From Moses Lake, we had a little less than a three-hour drive to Kahnderosa Campground in Cataldo, MT. Kahnderosa isn't fancy, but the owner was very friendly and it was fine for a one-night stop. The roads are mostly dirt and the sites are grass. Kahnderosa has water and 30-amp electric only. They gave us the end site so we wouldn't have any problems getting satellite reception and so we could pull through and not have to unhook the car, but that put us at the end of the electrical run so we had problems with low voltage. Kahnderosa is conveniently located right off I-90, which means there was traffic noise. The next photo shows our site at Kahnderosa Campground.

From Kahnderosa Campground in Cataldo, we had about a four-hour drive to Polson, MT, which is located at the southern end of Flathead Lake about an hour and a half south of Glacier National Park. In Polson, we stayed at Eagle Nest RV Resort. We were impressed by their sign as we drove into the campground.

 

Eagle Nest RV has full hookups with 50-amp electric, free Wi-Fi, and cable TV. The roads and patios are paved and the pads are gravel. The sites are nice and wide; but unfortunately, they are all short. Parking for back-in sites is at the front of your site parallel to the road. This makes the roads quite narrow. Parking for pull-through sites is in small parking areas located a short distance away from the sites. The next photo shows our site at Eagle Nest RV. You can see the parking area for the pull-through sites behind our motor home.

Eagle Nest is a nice, quiet campground. After our busy schedule in the Seattle area and after three days of traveling, we scheduled several days in Polson to unwind. Although we didn't have any definite sightseeing plans while staying in Polson, we did find out about the National Bison Range Wildlife Refuge located about half an hour to the south.

The National Bison Range was established in 1908 as a refuge for the American bison. Once numbering in the tens of millions, by the end of the 1800s there were only about 100 bison roaming wild. Larger numbers existed in private herds, but the bison were on the brink of extinction. Bison were eradicated during the Indian Wars to deprive the Indians of a valuable food source. Bison were also killed off because they competed with cattle for food.

The National Bison Range covers about 18,500 acres and has a relatively small herd of bison that ranges in size from 350 to 500 animals. The Bison Range is also a wildlife preserve and is home to elk, black bear, deer, pronghorn, coyote, and bighorn sheep as well as numerous species of birds. A large part of the range is prairie, but there are also forests, streams, and wetlands providing habitat for many different species of animals.

There is a 19-mile, gravel road that loops around the range. The loop road is open in summer, but there is a short, two-way section of the road that is used in winter (weather permitting). There are numbered signs along the road that correspond to descriptions on a map they hand out at the visitor center.

One of the first areas the road passes is Pauline Creek. The creek bed is dry this time of year, but there is enough moisture in the ground from seeps along the way that there are trees and small shrubs along the creek bed. Many of the shrubs are huckleberry bushes. Huckleberries, which are shown in the next photo, are similar to blueberries.

The map said to look for bears feeding on huckleberries in summer. Sure enough, this black bear was on its way into the thicket near the upper end of Pauline Creek.

Shortly after we saw the bear, the road started to climb fairly steeply. Overall, the road gains 2,000 feet in elevation. The next photo is looking back down the valley. The green area to the right of center is where Pauline Creek is located. You can see part of a forested area on the left, and you can see some of the switchbacks in the road.

 

At the top of the road looking to the northeast, you can see the glacial valley that was once Glacial Lake Missoula. Unfortunately, it was quite hazy the day we were there, but the next photo shows the valley where Lake Missoula was once located.

Lake Missoula was created by ice dams across the Clark Fork River during the Ice Age and had an area of about 3,000 square miles. Periodically, the ice dam would give way creating cataclysmic floods that helped create the Columbia River Gorge that we saw a few weeks ago while we were in Oregon. The lake drained and refilled dozens of times before the glaciers finally retreated.

The range is separated into several areas by fences. Although the bison roam free within an area, they are periodically moved from one area to another to help keep any one area from being overgrazed. As the road wound back down to the valley, we passed the area of the range where the bison were supposed to be. Unfortunately, there were no bison within sight. However, we did see some pronghorn. Pronghorn are commonly called antelope, they are really a separate species. The pronghorn eat mostly broad-leaf plants and do not compete for food with the bison, which eat grasses.

 

A little farther along, the road runs along Mission Creek. The map said to look for deer and elk in this area. Shortly, we saw two young whitetail deer...

...followed by a bull elk.

We were disappointed we didn't see any bison, but for Margery it brought to life the ballad, Home On the Range. We saw "where the buffalo roam and the deer and the antelope play." We were grateful to have seen so many other animals at the preserve. On our way back to the motor home, we took a little detour to drive into downtown Polson to see Flathead Lake. Flathead Lake is about 30 miles long and 16 miles wide and is the largest natural, freshwater lake in the western United States. The area of Flathead Lake exceeds the area of Lake Tahoe by about half a square mile. Although the lake is a natural lake formed by moraine dam left by a receding glacier, there is man-made dam that is used to regulate the water level to provide water for irrigation and for hydroelectric power.

Flathead Lake is popular for fishing and boating. The next photo shows the public boat launch area near downtown Polson.

 

From Polson, we headed north about an hour and a half to stay in Coram, MT to visit Glacier National Park. Look for our next post and we'll tell you all about it.