The Bob Marshall Wilderness
The beautiful Bob Marshall Wilderness.
When people think of the great public lands in Montana, often Yellowstone National Park and Glacier National Park are the first to come to mind, but it’d be a shame for anyone to miss the chance to see the Bob Marshall Wilderness on their Montana vacation.
You’ll also find great towns nearby, such as Whitefish, Kalispell and Columbia Falls, where there’s great Montana hotels and lodging.
The Bob Marshall Wilderness, known to Montanans as “The Bob” covers 1.5 million acres of some of the country’s most pristine wilderness, starting literally across the street from the south end of Glacier National Park.
This is one of the best preserved mountain ecosystems in the world, offering the outdoor experience of your Montana vacation dreams: waterfalls, rugged peaks, alpine lakes, wildflower meadows crossed by gurgling brooks, a tall ponderosa pines, and wide river valleys.
The Bob has some of Montana's best wildlife.
The Bob Marshall contains some of Montana’s most beautiful rivers, including the Middle and South Forks of the Flathead River, and the North and South Forks of the Sun River.
One of the most impressive and well-known attractions to the Bob Marshall is the Chinese Wall. This 22 mile cliff band with an average height of more than 1,000 feet. It’s something that has to be seen to understand the great beauty of it.
The Bob Marshall Wilderness is one of the top places in Montana to see wildlife. It the furthest south holdout for the grizzly bear, and is also home to packs of gray wolves. There area also a plethora of other animals to see, including Canadian lynx, bobcats, wolverines, elk, bighorn sheep, mountain goats, black bears, cougars and more.
Unlike the national parks, big game hunting is allowed in the Bob Marshall Wilderness, and it is a popular spot for guided elk hunting trips.
Bird watching here is also great. Giving you chances to see bald eagles, grouse, falcons, hawks, owls, woodpeckers, Steller’s jays, Clark’s nutcrackers, nuthatches and more.
Rafting the wild Middle Fork of the Flathead is best from mid-July to mid-August, when good weather coincides with adequate flows. Only the skilled expert should attempt to float the Middle Fork during peak runoff in June. The wildest whitewater boils in the canyon below Spruce Park, where it drops an average of 41 feet per mile. Most of the float parties put in at Schafer, after either flying or packing in. Schafer is the only historic aircraft landing field within the compel open to the public.
The Bob is classic horse country because of its vastness, relatively gently terrain, and wide mid-elevation river valleys with abundant forage for grazing. It is probably one of the few Wildernesses where horse users still outnumber hikers and backpackers.
You’ll find more than 1,000 miles of a well-developed trail system, with maintained paths giving way to less well managed trails as you travel deeper into Montana’s largest Wilderness.
More information on the Bob Marshall the Lincoln Ranger District, Seeley Lake Ranger District and the Flathead National Forest.
Related posts:
- Glacier Country Rivers
- Montana best of fishing: Glacier National Park
- Montana Best of Rafting: Glacier National Park
- Montana Maps: The Flathead Valley
- Montana Campgrounds: Red Lodge
[...] the south of Glacier is the Bob Marshall Wilderness, another fantastic Montana outdoor adventure area, great for hiking, backpacking, hunting and [...]