Traveling 28 miles to the lakes on the washboard road, too, it's not to hard to imagine what those bouncy coach rides must have been like. Along the way though, the remote route offers up rare rewards. Beyond the fenceline, skittish antelope bolt in the lavendar bloom of sage in the open Centennial Valley. The valley has an abundance of smaller mammals, too. You might spot a badger crossing the road with a prairie dog between its jaws, or a fox pouncing in the grass after a deer mouse.
Otters are fond of the lakes, too.
Mountain bluebirds and hawks take flight from fenceposts along the road. At least 258 species of birds visit or live in the refuge's more than 40,300 acres. Species include hawks, hummingbirds, grebes, chickadees, nuthatches, kingbirds, herons, grouse, sandhill cranes, and the rare and beautiful trumpeter swans who nest here and dawdle in the security of the marshes and cattails all year round. The Big Hole River is fed by high lakes and mountain streams. It trickles out of the southern end of the Bitterroots and trundles along the floor of the ancient valley before hooking south and then north again to join with the Jefferson, Madison, Red Rock and Beaverhead rivers at Twin Bridges to feed the headwaters of the Missouri River.