Spotting wildlife
Bison Range opens Red Sleep Drive to visitors
It's easy to let go of everyday stress and slip into an outdoor trance when driving through the National Bison Range, enjoying all it has to offer.
The Bison Range is a wildlife gem and provides endless opportunities for spotting wildlife on the large expanse of grassland located within the Columbia River Basin Ecoregion. The season opening of the Bison Range took place on Saturday, welcoming visitors to tour the area until it closes its gates again in October.
Opening day was planned to fall in unison with Migratory Bird Day and offered a day's list of events to kickoff the season.
"Migratory Bird Day is a great excuse to open it and it's not the best time to bird here, it's still a little early, but it's a great excuse to open the drive," said Outdoor Recreation Planner Pat Jamieson.
The drive Jamieson alludes to is the Red Sleep Mountain Drive, which is one of the prominent features of the Bison Range. The Red Sleep drive is a 19-mile, one-way drive on a gravel road and provides an abundance of wildlife viewing.
"It's a great drive, we tell people it takes an hour and a half to two hours and that's a slow pace with time to stop here and there. You certainly can spend longer, but in an hour and a half you won't feel like you rushed through," said Jamieson.
According to Jamieson, the majority of wildlife are desensitized to vehicles and ignore their presence. Although there are hiking trails around the area, she recommends taking pictures from the vehicle as the animals will typically run away when seeing a human's silhouette.
"There are a lot of places to pull over and get out of the way of other vehicles and a lot of pull outs to get some good pictures. And if they are on the other side of your car, you can get out and shoot over your car. Your car is an excellent blind and they don't mind vehicles at all," said Jamieson.
Even if wildlife is not visible during a visitor's drive, the Red Sleep drive is worth it solely for the scenic opportunities as the path winds around and up to High Point Trail, which is 4,885 feet above sea level, giving a remarkably clear view of the surrounding landscape. The road also runs along Mission Creek adding further scenic opportunities.
"The people who come and visit us frequently say this is the best place they've ever been to see wildlife, you go to Glacier and Glacier is gorgeous, but they will say they didn't see a lot of animals there. Well, Glacier is forested and we are mostly open grassland so if you come in the morning and evening the animals are out in the open," said Jamieson.
On Red Sleep Drive visitors may get the chance to see bison, white tailed deer, mule deer, pronghorn antelope, elk, bighorn sheep, mountain goats, mountain lions, black bears, bobcats and coyotes.
The bison were out and about in large numbers where the path approached the bison corrals, near the tail end of the drive, in the early afternoon hours on Saturday. A fair number of antelope were also visible when the trail starts winding downward from the high point towards Antelope Ridge.
"The forested area is a good place to look for elk and maybe the mule deer. The white tail deer like to be on the creek and sometimes there are elk down there too. The open area is a good place for prong horned animals and the big horn sheep. Sometimes the rams hang out right on the high point so you have to watch for them," said Jamieson. The Visitor Center will now be open everyday to help people plan their sight-seeing.
If visitors are looking for a shorter trip to the Bison Range, there are quick drives that offer opportunities to view specific wildlife.
The West Loop is a one-mile drive that offers such opportunities. There are also two hiking trails, Bitterroot Trail and High Point trail, off of the Red Sleep drive.
To celebrate Migratory Bird Day, Saturday began with a bird walk in the morning. Although it is not yet ideal birding season, Jamieson said there were still a number of birds on the trail, including a bald eagle.
Neotropical migratory bird surveys and breeding bird surveys have recorded a total of 211 bird species since the Bison Range was officially established in 1908. Some of the birds in the area include mountain bluebirds, western meadowlarks, short-eared owls and vesper sparrows.
In addition to the bird walk in the morning, artist Bob Petty, who did the art for the Migratory Bird Day poster signed the posters for anyone interested.
Wildlife, photographer Don Jones from Troy also set up a table selling and signing copies of his various publications.
The Bison Range will now be open to visitors during day light hours from 6:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. If people are interested in going on the Red Sleep drive, the latest they can start the drive is 6 p.m. and after Memorial Day it will be 7 p.m.