Circle Tour - Deer Lodge, MT

Thursday Sept 3, 2015

 When we check-in at a new RV park, we always look for the tourist publications that identify unique or interesting things to do or see in that area.  This time, one of the articles talked about the "Circle Tour".  We are pleased we took the ride.

 The pavement ends, and a rocky gravel road beckons us.

The road soon climbs to the 6000' level and we spot this young lady being very wary of us.  First wildlife spotted.

From the size of the trees, you can see we are at high elevation, looking at high grassy meadows.  Great habitat for elk.

The lighting is wrong to display this Red-Tailed 
Hawk, but it counts as our 2nd wildlife observed on our tour.

Big Sky Montana, beautiful country!  Still some smoke in the air.  See the cattle in the valley?  Part of our tour has fenced pastures, other areas use cattle guards and free range.

 We climbed to 6870' before we crested and came down the winding bumpy road to the high meadows.  We have no idea about these ruins, and since it was on fenced property, we did not go closer to investigate.

Homes in town are small and the residents do not appear to be well off financially, but ranching must be good.

This is a view showing where we have been, up near the summit.  The road is fairly straight now and descending back towards town, still 11 miles away.

The prior two photos were taken on a side trip to Orofino Campground.  We did not take any photos there.  It was not well maintained, however, the road to the campsite is only open from June to October.

 Wildlife sighting number 3.  Antelope!  This was taken Wednesday afternoon, late in the day.  There was a small herd of antelope grazing together.  We had not gone much farther when we saw a herd of elk, but they were on the run, and a photo was not possible as they headed directly into the setting sun.

 Sorry, I cut off her ears!  So Thursday morning, Dusty thinks it would be a good idea to drive to Orofino Campground which would retrace part of our prior day, and perhaps we would get to view the elk.

 We did find some of the antelope again.

We never did see any elk again, but we were blessed to see this handsome fellow, herding the two in the photos above.

On down the road, we have more museums in town to visit before we leave town.