National Bison Range (Montana)
Over the Canadian Thanksgiving long week-end, Andrea and I decided it was finally time for us to discover Big Sky Country, Montana.
Our first stop would bring us to the National Bison Range in Charlo. Located just west of the Mission Range, the drive to get there was spectacular. Big Montana Sky at its finest.
There was an estimate 50 millions of bison roaming in North America before excessive hunting brought this population down to an alarming 100 at the end of the 1800’s. Thanks to the National Bison Range, there are now around 400 of them living peacefully in a 76 km2 area. There is a road looping around the Range and a few walking trails one can use. We spent a few hours admiring these massive animals and enjoying the scenic views from the highest point of the Range.
Looking for bison from above. It turned out they were all on the other side of the mountain.
It was really interesting to read about Lake Missoula. At the end of the ice age, around 15000 years ago, this entire valley that is now called Lake County was covered by the 7700km2 Lake Missoula. The water line was as high as the sign Andrea is standing in front of on the picture below.
The Mission Range.
Can you spot the deer grazing?
After driving down the mountain, we were finally able to admire the bison. They are massive and majestic animals.
Deer were all over the place too. They seemed to be used to human presence as we were driving only a few feet away from them and they didn’t seem to care one bit.
With the sun setting down slowly in the horizon, we headed out but not before taking a moment to follow this bison walking along a ridge in the distance. It was like watching a shadow moving slowly. We spent the evening driving toward Missoula where we would spend the night.
The Lolo National Forest is located just South of Missoula and it was a place I really wanted to go. The reason being that Lolo has been my nickname ever since I was a child. I couldn’t resist and had to snap a picture of every sign with Lolo on it. There was a lot of hiking opportunities in the National Forest, but we had spent too much time walking around the pretty Missoula downtown earlier in the day and ran out of time. It could also be because I found out that there was an Alpacka Raft retailer in Montana and it was located right here in Missoula. So we spent way too much time looking at the packrafts!!! But it was all worth it in the end because Andrea confessed to me that she would like to have her own packraft to join me next summer. Whattttt!!!
Packrafter Paradise!
Lolo Peak.
We ended up at the… Lolo Peak Brewing Company instead! We picked up a growler full of delicious brown beer and made our way to Kalispell.
Lolo Peak Brewing Company in Lolo, Montana.
Looking at the map, I noticed a town called Frenchtown. I was intrigued and found this little church off of the main road. Next thing you know, a lot of French-Canadians from Montreal moved to the Missoula Valley in the late 1850’s. What are the odds! It was a cool discovery. I couldn’t stop asking myself if I would have been one of them if I was born 150 years earlier. The last piece of this church, the bell, was installed in 1885, exactly a century before I was born in Montreal.
The last stop on our way to Kalispell was at the Garden of One Thousand Buddhas on the Flathead Indian Reservation. This temple is on a 10 acre land, surrounded by mountains. It was a very calm place and a great experience. Pictures can’t make justice to how pretty these grounds were.
The last section of the drive was as spectacular as on our way in. Nothing like driving along mountain ranges.
The last obstacle was the gigantic Flathead Lake, a place I would surely like to come back to. We arrived in Kalispell in the dark and enjoyed a nice take-out dinner from Famous Dave’s Bar-B-Que that we ate in our hotel room with a few glasses of brown ale from the Lolo Brewing Company.
For the drive back home on the next morning we decided to take a different route and drove across Glacier National Park (the one in Montana) and the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. We had the road to ourselves and it was perfect because I must’ve stopped the car every few kilometers to enjoy the views.
In Babb, we stopped at the Blackfeet Indian Memorial and read about the Blackfoot Nation history. Their territory used to stretch from Montana to all the way north of Edmonton, Alberta. Today, it is a fraction of what it used to and it is very sad. All these signs were very educational, and while there is nothing we can change about the past and about how past events unfolded, the least we can do today is to educate ourselves and acknowledge that some of us now live on lands that are not originally ours. It was the perfect way to conclude our trip in beautiful Montana. We will be back soon, no doubt about it.
“In the spirit of reconciliation, we acknowledge that we live, work and play on the traditional territories of the Blackfoot Confederacy (Siksika, Kainai, Piikani), the Tsuut’ina, the Îyâxe Nakoda Nations, the Métis Nation (Region 3), and all people who make their homes in the Treaty 7 region of Southern Alberta.”