Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
a year-round recreation mecca. Browning's Museum of the Plains Indian offers colorful
displays of the historic culture, while during the second week of July, the North American
Indian Days bring the tribe's culture to life in a flourish of drumming, dance competitions,
a rodeo, and parade.
2. Blackleaf Wildlife Management Area
At the town of Bynum, turn west off Rte. 89 onto Blackleaf Road and drive 16 miles to
theBlackleafWildlifeManagementAreainthefoothillsoftheRockies.Hereagravelroad
winds through forests of limber pine, ending at Blackleaf Canyon. Stippled in spring with
trillium and ladyslipper and visited by a modest herd of mountain goats, the canyon is so
beautiful you may want to continue on foot. Look for golden eagles and prairie falcons
soaring overhead, and listen for the odd booming sound made by sharp-tailed grouse per-
forming their spring mating dance.
3. Pine Butte Swamp Preserve
As the route continues south, treeless hill country stretches out like an ocean of enormous
swells. A few of the wheat farms on the horizon are Hutterite colonies—self-sufficient re-
ligious communities begun by European immigrants in the 19th century. Hutterite women
all dress alike (in dirndls, plaid aprons, and polka-dot scarfs), and each man has assigned
duties (cow boss, pig boss, and the like).
About five miles north of Choteau, the highway reaches the shimmering Teton River,
whosepebblyshallowsgurglesoftly,mimicking thequakingaspensalongitsbanks.Head-
ing west off Rte. 89, a side road follows the Teton for 17 miles. A turn south then leads
across the Teton to the Pine Butte Swamp Preserve, an 18,000-acre wildlife sanctuary
ownedbythe Nature Conservancy.The refuge encompasses atangled swampy bottomland
as well as hills, grasslands, and a 500-foot-high sandstone butte. The preserve's peace and
quiet is often enlivened by the voices of more than 150 species of birds, which squawk,
chitter,quack,trill,hoot,caw,andwhistleinblissfulabandon.Thepreserveisalsoarefuge
forgrizzlies,whosenumbershavedecreasedmarkedlysincepioneerdays,whenmorethan
100,000 roamed throughout western North America.
Did you know…
The Pine Butte Swamp Preserve was once home to vast herds of plant-eating
dinosaurs. Eighty million years of geologic folding and erosion have unearthed
thousands of dinosaur bones here, as well as nests, eggs, hatchlings and juven-
iles.
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