Slippery Ann - Elk on the Russell Refuge

Photo: USFWS Mountain-Prairie, public domain (cropped)

A stop on American Prairie: Rewilding the Plains, a free self-guided tour.

You are now inside the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge, which wraps around the Missouri and Fort Peck Lake for well over a hundred miles. Franklin Roosevelt created it in 1936 as the Fort Peck Game Range, and in 1963 it was renamed for Charlie Russell, the Montana cowboy artist who painted country like this.

The 20-mile auto tour route runs on all-weather gravel along the river bottoms and up onto the prairie. Slippery Ann, about six miles in, is famous for elk. They start gathering at the end of August, numbers peak in mid-September and stay high into early October, and on a good evening more than 200 may be in view while bulls bugle across the bottoms.

The refuge sets clear rules here: stay at the road's edge, since the land beyond is closed to public entry, and never use spotlights, flashlights or headlights to light up wildlife. Arrive in late afternoon, turn off your engine, bring a chair and layers, and listen.

Getting here: Return to US 191 just south of the bridge and turn east onto the refuge's signed Auto Tour Route; Slippery Ann is about six miles in on maintained gravel.

Did you know?: Collecting shed elk antlers or animal skulls is illegal on the refuge, so the antlers you see on the ground have to stay right where they fell.

Photo op: Park on the south side of the road near sunset and frame the elk herd on the river bottom with the cottonwoods and breaks behind them.

More on Wikipedia: Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge · Charles Marion Russell · Elk · Fort Peck Lake

Slippery Ann - Elk on the Russell Refuge

Stops on this tour