Big Hole Basin Big Loop Drive

Southwest Montana back roads give a cinematic feel to any drive. With few diversions beyond spectacular scenery, the mind usually takes a back road as well. Conversation is less stressful. More thoughtful. In this fine Weblog commentary of such a drive, a bow hunter and his dad share a Saturday loop around the Big Hole Basin. It’s an excellent travelogue as well as personal diary.

Excerpts: from Wapiti With An Arrow

…We made it over the (Lost Trail) Pass and down to Wisdom. We worked our way through to the Bannack ghost town cemetery and got a chance to stretch our legs. We perused around the gravestones and remarked on how young most of the deceased were when they died. Most of them were younger than thirty years old! It was a tough life then. I learned that a fit of cholera could wipe out about two thirds of the youngsters in those old mining towns. Imagine how that would feel, seeing over half of your friends die of a disease you could just as easily acquire and die from. I imagined how that graveyard would feel at night…with all the dead children sitting around watching the desolate landscape they called their final resting place; sitting in a circle, talking about the old times…it was creepy to say the least. Even in full sunlight, I got a feeling of incredible loneliness.

…we made our way by the REAL Beaverhead landmark… that is NOT what the interpretive signs tell you. The REAL Beaverhead is actually quite a few miles south of what the signs will tell you. If you are ever in the area, you must travel the highway north from Pocatello on the interstate to see the true Beaverhead landmark. We all are not sure how this got confused in history, but it is readily apparent to those willing to actually look at the landforms in the area.

…We switched drivers in Dillon and made our way north to the cutoff that would lead us back to the Bighole Valley through Wise River. This has got to be one of the most untouched, beautiful valleys in Montana. There was absolutely no traffic and we actually could stop the vehicle in the middle of the highway and look at the snow-covered peaks, pastures, and Bighole River. We dreamed about living in that area and what it would be like with no one around.

…I am in love with Montana and the beauties it beholds. I cannot believe there is another place where you can drive a simple two hours from a metropolis and be taken back to the 1800’s. Where you can place yourself in an environment that makes you feel like you are an insignificant speck in the universe. It is surely an incredible place that, in itself, will take a lifetime to explore and not even be able to skim the surface of what it is.