Michael Janke

I wanted to visit the non-touristy part of Montana – the vast prarie in the east-central part of the state. Like many, we’ve assumed that the only interesting part is the mountainous west, and hence have driven across the (boring) east and center as fast as possible.

Not this trip. I wanted to criss-cross the east-central range land, tracking the Missouri River as much as possible and checking out the the coulees/breaks area around the river. That turns out to be hard to do. From Fort Peck in the east to the far edge of the Upper Missouri Breaks National Monmument – roughly 200 miles as the crow flies – there is only one paved North-South road across the Missouri. So if you want to see the Missouri in this part of the state, you either travel US 191 or bring your 4wd vehicle and prepare for many dozens of miles of dirt roads through near-empty prairie.

I would have liked to visit the Upper Missouri Breaks National Monument, but as their web site says, “Vast portions of the monument are serviced only by gravel and unimproved roads … and many roads cross soils that become absolutely impassable when wet...”. I.E. Not suitable for a 9000lb low-clearance 2wd campervan that doesn’t even have a locking differential when it’s raining every other day.

Bugling Elk

While checking out the area, where 191 crosses the Missouri, we totally planned happened to visit the elk viewing area in the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge. The visit was totally planned happened to be during the fall rut – i.e. elk mating season. During the fall rut the resident bull elk compete for cows by demonstrating their manly prowess using bugle calls, thrashing of tree branches, etc. Our visit happened to be when a herd of a few dozen cows and a handful of bulls were very close to the viewing area, bulls bugling away in the middle of the afternoon.

The bugle calls are something to hear. The first video is a bull elk bugling, the second is a bull elk digging up some mud. My camera had trouble focusing on the second video.

This area is really empty – wide open spaces, towns are dozens of miles apart, gas and groceries could easily be 70 miles away, ranches are widely separated. If you grew up here, anything east of the Mississippi would feel crowded and claustrophobic.