I often wander away from RedRock RV Park to see what variety I might encounter in the nearby forests, meadows, and mountains. The flowers and animals are similar throughout this little corner of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, but there are some differences. I enjoy getting away from the other people and enjoy the scenery and wildlife by myself. That's easy to do using the RedRock RV Park as a base. Today I decided to drive a short distance to Antelope Basin in Montana. It's only about a 15 mile drive to the basin and the trip is beautiful, traveling around the west end of Henry's Lake.

Antelope Basin is reached via a dirt road off of highway 87, about 1/2 mile from the Montana/Idaho border. It climbs into a basin managed by the US Forest Service. This basin is a critical wildlife habitat and corridor for elk, mule deer, pronghorn, bighorn sheep, bison, sage grouse, bear, wolves and other wildlife. The headwaters of creeks that feed both the Madison River and the Red Rock Lakes are here. The distinguishing feature of the land here is the foothills sagebrush surrounded by coniferous and deciduous forests. Parts of this basin are still leased rangelands for cattle grazing. Of course, cattle contribute to the "non-native" aspects and degrading of this beautiful wild land but one can look past most of their damage to see the beauty of the wildflowers, the creeks and the wildlife.


Once over the hill we found a lone Yellow-bellied Marmot (Marmota flaviventris) scrambling among the sagebrush and the lichen covered volcanic rocks. Marmots are basically large ground squirrels. They typically live in burrows, and hibernate there through the winter. Most marmots are highly social, and use loud whistles to communicate with one another, especially when alarmed. They eat many types of grasses, berries, lichens, mosses, roots and flowers. There is a good supply of all of those in this basin.


Not far away, down the hill we spotted the namesake for this basin, the Antelope or more accurately (antelopes are in Africa only) the Pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) grazing on the basin grasses. From the fact that it didn't run from us tells me that it probably had a young fawn hiding in the high grass nearby. They won't desert their young unless provoked by some direct means.

The dirt road encounters a wire gate (for the cattle) that you must open and close. Once through the gate you are following Antelope Creek for a while. We got out there and looked at the wildflowers growing along this riparian environment. Of course there were the mosquitoes, but they weren't too bad.


The most obvious wildflower here is now the Indian Paintbrush (Castilleja miniata). It's bright red color contrasts with the dark green of the vegetation along the creek and make for nice picture spots along this rambling creek. Paintbrushes draw water and some nutrients from nearby plants, usually sagebrush or grasses by using short side branches from their roots. But mainly, they are just usually one of the most attractive wildflowers where ever they grow.