Boulder River Canyon Road Trip

[Deb1741]

Today my grandson and I took a quick road trip down the Boulder River Canyon to scout out the road conditions. The Boulder River runs south of Big Timber, Montana. We are renting a forest service cabin for two nights in July and my parents want to bring their 5th wheel all the way to the cabin. After 25 miles of paved highway there is 17 miles of gravel road to get to the cabin so I wanted to check the condition of the road before they hauled their 5th wheel 300 miles to find out it was too rough for them. Right where the paved road ends is the Natural Bridge Recreation Area. The state has done a really nice job with the area. Along one side they have paved wheelchair accessible trails to different lookouts. The best lookouts of the Natural Bridge is across a footbridge and a hiking trail.

The canyon right below the Natural Bridge.


The road is very scenic and has a lot of primitive campgrounds and trailheads along the gravel road. I think the gravel road continues for about 27 miles before you get to the end of the canyon. One of these days I want to drive the entire length to check it out. We were talking about not seeing any wildlife other than a few deer when we rounded a corner and saw three black bears. A sow and two cubs- probably yearlings. They were about 50 feet from the road when we first saw them but as soon as we drove closer to them the cubs got nervous and started running for the hill with mom quickly following them. They skidaddled out there pretty darn quickly.





One of the many creeks along side the road.


When we got back to the paved highway we found some cranes alongside the road. An adult with a baby was real close but as soon as we slowed down the baby took off running through the grass. The adult layed down in the grass and stayed there the entire time we were stopped. Another crane came out by the brush and started walking towards the baby.



Deb

[pitamakan]

Wow ... wonderful photos! Especially of the bears -- on the rare occasions when I see them I'm usually too freaked out to get any photos.

And that's a wonderful canyon ... I haven't been out that way for years, but would love to go back. You guys will have a great time up there.

[dorf]

I drove to the Box Canyon TH several years ago....that's a sweet drive, one of my favorites.