Joe & Wilma's Excellent Adventures

 Monday, July 8, 2024

The Bison Range

We got started on our exploring today about a quarter till 12 after running up to the gas station and topping off the jeep. We are less than a half a mile from Interstate 90 and every truck stop you could think of is right here at this intersection, so we’re in good shape there.

When we went to the casino last night, we noticed there were campsites there with electric hook up. I looked at my casino camping book this morning and they were not listed so I googled them. It looks like they have eight sites with electric, free parking for up to four nights.  Who knew?? The casino is Gray Wolf Peak casino about 10 miles north of Missoula on 93. 

It’s 79° here at noon, forecasted to high of 87.  At home it’s supposed to be 113 today. Phoenix had a record yesterday for the high for that day of 118.  That’s why we’re here. 

We went under that animal overpass again and today I saw a sign. It’s called Animal Bridge.

We got to the bison range about a quarter till one. We went in the visitor center and got the information but neither one of us thought to pick up the map so we’re driving blind a little bit. This is run by Indian tribes.   In addition to bison, they’re supposed to be elk, deer, wolf, coyote, pronghorn, eagles, grouse, bear, weasels river otter, and snakes, so we’ll see what we see. We did see two herds of Buffalo and a couple singles from the highway just before we got to the range. 

On the parking lot was a stack of elk antlers, which were interesting.

There were 2 drives: the ridge drive and the prairie drive. We took the ridge drive, which is a 2-hour drive but runs into the prairie drive. You can take the prairie drive which is only a one-hour drive.  The ridge drive was a steady uphill climb to 4700 ft. 

The road up to the summit was pretty smooth, even though it was just a gravel road, but once we started down the steep grade, it became a lot rougher. Joe averaged between 10 and 13 miles an hour on this whole drive.

We had some nice views of the valley and  River from the top of the mountain.

Then we finally saw two lone buffalo, then a few more on the other side of the road.  Shortly past that, we came up on a creek (Mission creek) with a ridge behind it.  There was a small herd of Buffalo scattered around on the ridge, but in the creek itself were six adult buffalo and two calves. We don’t think we had ever seen them in the water like that — pretty cool sight. The range of mountains behind here are the Mission mountains.

When we started on this drive, just passed the entrance  was a little loop road called West Loop. We missed it but when we finished the drive, we could see there was a buffalo back there closer than any we had seen so we drove back so we could get a picture.

The Bison Range drive took just over two hours.  It was a little disappointing, but we did see some buffalo, two antelope and a deer. We actually saw more buffalo out along the highway before we turned in then we did in the park, but I was able to get a good picture of the one on the loop road.

On our way back to the camper, Joe spotted some belted cows. Mike McRae used to tease me about belted cows all the time so we took a picture in his honor. We had to turn around and go back to get the photo but we did it. 

We had a 4-hour outing, 100 miles. It made 90 degrees here today and with our back air conditioner down, the rv was just on the verge of uncomfortable. Our appointment for the a/c on the 22nd can’t get here soon enough.  That was the end of our day.  

Tomorrow we “do” Missoula.