Most abandoned segments can be located today but are often overgrown by vegetation, altered by floods, powerlines, and other manmade structures, or cross a variety of ownerships. Their route through four states, dictated by topography and their own skillful strategy, covered over 1,100 miles before they were trapped and surrendered at Montana's Bears Paw Mountains just short of the Canadian border and safety on October 5, 1877. In addition to having been loyal friends and allies of the whites for almost three quarters of a century, their conduct during the war was free of traits which whites usually associated with Indian warfare. Following what the whites regarded as a civilized code of conduct, the Nez Perce refrained from scalping, mutilating bodies, or torturing prisoners, and generally avoided attacks on noncombatant citizens. Nevertheless, as defeated Indians, the surviving Nez Perce were sent to several years of exile in present-day Oklahoma before they were allowed to return to reservations in the Northwest.
Dusk settles over the Montana prairie near trail's end.