view of the Bighorn Mountains, Wyoming

 Across the Continent 

(part 11) 

Montana - Wyoming - Nebraska - MD

26 June - 2 July 2022

    stotting Mule Deer, Bentonite Road

I arrived in Glasgow, Montana on the afternoon of the 26th of June, having driven from Olds, Alberta, just south of Red Deer. Glasgow is a nice little town, and has the Shady Rest RV Park, where I had camped in 2020. I was back because I had fallen in love with the Bentonite Road, which crosses a large undeveloped patch of high prairie rich in birds and mammals. And the Shady Rest was a perfect base for naturizing the region.

    sunrise on the Bentonite Road

I rose at 4:30am on the 27th of June and drove out to see the sunrise on the Bentonite Road. In May of  2020 I had seen Sharp-tailed Grouse displaying in a roadside lek and lots of other things that made me wish to return here. This visit, later in the season, was quite different, but still very satisfying. Instead of Sharptails I saw lots and lots of Greater Sage-Grouse along the road, parties of females and hens with chicks. In two days I saw perhaps 50 of the birds. In 2020 I saw zero... That's why it is worth visiting these special places in different seasons.

    Greater Sage-Grouse

I spend a long morning out on the Bentonite Road, returning for a late breakfast in town. Shorebird highlights were 3 Marbled Godwits, 1 Long-billed Curlew, and 2 Willets. The dirt road itself was positively choked with Mourning Doves and Horned Larks. I saw hundreds. In fact, this transect was  the richest in raw numbers of birds of any morning on my 43 day trip. There were birds everywhere. Bird heaven!

    Great Sage-Grouse hen and chick

Lark Buntings were thick along the roadside, and I also saw Lark and Vesper Sparrows and two species of longspurs--Thick-billed and Chestnut-collared. This means I saw all four longspurs on my trip--a feat not terribly easy to accomplish by car... After breakfast in town I drove back out to the Bentonite Road. It was hotter and quieter, but I encountered Red-headed Woodpeckers, Upland Sandpipers, lots of Pronghorns, and a Golden Eagle. 

    cock Ring-necked Pheasant

On the 28th I made a quick trip out to the Bentonite Road to say farewell, and then I headed south to the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming. On this morning I saw a Long-billed Curlew, several Marbled Godwits, and more Upland Sandpipers. It was quite a long drive to Buffalo, Wyoming, the jumping off town into the Bighorns. I passed through varied country, some grazed, some under agriculture, much as unbroken upland dry prairie, some badlands, and then some pine forests. 

         Richardson's Ground-Squirrel

After a burger in Buffalo, WY, I headed up route 16 into the southern side of the Cloud Peak Wilderness of the Bighorn Mountains. I was here because I had fond memories of a visit to this area back in 1972 with Adirondack Wilderness Camp (their western field trip). On this particular afternoon, I had to find a space in the crowded campgrounds of the national forest. Crowded in large part because there were bad floods in Yellowstone at this time and campers had been turned away from that more popular destination.

    Pronghorn doe and fawn

The winding road took me higher and higher, and I crossed a pass at more than 9,000 feet before arriving at Sitting Bull Campground, where I was able to cadge a campsite for two nights in a pretty stand of pines next to a large grassy opening, with views of the snow-capped peaks to the north. 

    Pronghorn does and fawns

My tent was set in the conifers at 8,600 feet above sea level. A Cassin's Finch was collecting nesting materials nearby, and a Warbling Vireo sang from over my tent. 

    Long-billed Curlew

    Thick-billed Longspur in a songflight

    Thick-billed Longspur on the Bentonite Road

    pretty vista in Rosebud, Montana

    East Tensleep Lake, looking up into the Cloud Peak Wilderness (Wyoming)

The early morning of the 29th of June I hiked up to East Tensleep Lake, a hike of more than three hours and an ascent of more than 1,200 feet. I passed through pines, spruce, and fir as I climbed higher and higher. Highlights of the hike were several butterflies, lots of singing birds, and a curious male Pine Grosbeak, novel for the trip. In the afternoon a thunderstorm raged overhead and I took shelter in my tent. 

    flower-bedecked meadow at Sitting Bull Campground (Bighorn Mts, WY)

On the early morning of the 30th of June I departed Sitting Bull Campsite and started my travel home. Once out of the national forest, I headed southeastward from Buffalo, with my destination being Big Blue Campground on the Big Blue River right in Seward, Nebraska. I had stayed at Big Blue in 2020 when hunting for Hudsonian Godwits in the spring (all the regular campgrounds were shut tight because of covid and I had to find places that operated below the radar, like Big Blue--which is a town campground.)

    Sara Orangetip

The long drive to Seward, Nebraska took me through Casper and Douglas, and Scottsbluff, Oglalla, and North Platte, among other lesser towns. I crossed the North Platte a number of times. I added a mammal to my trip list--Black-tailed Prairie-Dog (in a prairie-dog town). I lunched in Ash Hollow State Park, which was very pretty but hot and sunny. I sat on a picnic table beside a stand of huge old cottonwoods at the creek bottom. These giant cottonwoods are the reason for this state park, no doubt.  

    Common Alpine

Big Blue Campground in Seward, NE, was fine, but because of the approach of the 4th of July, the kids in the area were detonating fireworks, some very noisy, until after midnight. Then, of course, the freight train passed by in the early AM, making all manner of noise and lasting for a long long time... ah, small towns and freight trains! 

    male Pine Grosbeak

I crossed the Missouri into Iowa at 7:30am on the 1st of July, and before you know it I was in Missouri. I had breakfast in Cameron, Missouri, on route 36. Added another new mammal for the trip this morning--Eastern Cottontail!  

    Milbert's Tortoiseshell butterfly

Crossed the Mississippi at Hannibal, Missouri into Illinois. I was not sure about where to spend my last night on the road. I got tangled up in terrible construction and traffic in Indianapolis, and after many long hours of driving I took a chance on Greenfield, Indiana, just east of the big city. Bingo! I chatted by phone with the town police (on a whim) and they steered me to a town park where I dined after dark and set up my tent next to my car in this busy downtown park. The morning of the 2nd rose before 5am and drove east, stopping in Wheeling to do my monthly radio show ("Natural Encounters", with Jimmy Mac, on Radio Nemo, on Sirius XM), and then at Lick Hollow State Park, in the Laureal Highlands of PA, for a picnic lunch (gorgeous eastern deciduous forest). I added three more birds to the trip list--birding singing from the canopy of this beautiful cove forest. I arrived home in Bethesda, after 43 days on the road, and driving 11,834 miles, on the afternoon of the 2nd of July. 

    Chimney Rock, near West Bayard, Nebraska