19 Fantastic Miles: National Bison Range

A year ago, road crews were wrestling with 10-foot snow drifts near the top of Red Sleep Mountain in their efforts to clear the National Bison Range’s 19-mile loop for visitors by its traditional Mother’s Day weekend opening.

This week, Darren Thomas was kicking up a tiny dust storm as he ran a grader over the bare gravel road. With no snow to deal with, crews are taking advantage of this spring’s weather to not only prepare the road for summer traffic, but also to replace several cattle guards along the route.

The work must be finished prior to the opening of Red Sleep Mountain Drive to the public on Saturday, May 9.

The national wildlife refuge is open year-round, but the mostly one-way drive that winds more than 2,000 feet above its start and end delivers the Bison Range in all its glory.

If all you want from a visit is to see bison, you won’t have to drive 19 miles to do it. On a pre-opening-day tour with Bison Range volunteer Dave Fitzpatrick earlier this week, we barely had our seatbelts buckled before we were eyeballing several, some less than 10 feet from our vehicle.

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