Welcome to the Sweet Grass Hills In Montana Picture Tour

You are going to need to flip your phone or tablet on its’ side because we believe Montana’s “Big Sky Country” looks best in big beautiful panoramas.  If you get the opportunity to hike the Sweet Grass Hills in Montana during the month of June, do it!  You can thank us later.  If you can’t wait for the hills to turn a lush green then late April is a great time to catch the Pasque flowers in bloom. Instead of big showy patches of wildflowers, the Pasque flower appears as a solitary plant that miraculously emerges after a long winter dormancy.  Finding this beautiful but rugged pink flower (below) in the Sweet Grass Hills is always a special treat.

A Montana Special Place

From the top of East Butte you can see the Milk River and the Writing-On-Stone Provincial Park to the north in Alberta, Canada. Archaeological evidence indicates that native people camped at Writing-On-Stone as long as 3000 years ago. For centuries, native people created petroglyph (rock carvings) and pictographs (rock paintings) on the sandstone cliffs along the Milk River. Although some of the rock art may be 3000 years old, the date of the first appearance of rock art at Writing-On-Stone remains uncertain.  Walk around the summit peak of East Butte to find colorful offerings and Vision Quest pits. Don’t have your passport with you to enter Canada? Don’t worry, Dalyce Russill  posted beautiful photographs on her webpage, “A Virtual Field Trip of Milk River, Alberta” of the incredible rock carvings across the border.

Access the Sweet Grass Hills In Montana from the EASTSIDE

Ride north on the gravel road Highway 224 from Joplin, Montana.  If the the roads are wet, this route to the east side of the Sweet Grass Hills offers the best driving conditions for a passenger car or two-wheel drive truck. The road is a well traveled two lane gravel road.  In sharp contrast, the road on the west side of the Sweet Grass Hills from Sunburst, Montana called Highway 552 can be muddy and full of deep ruts.  As you bounce up the road you will have to go through “security.” (See Below) We’re joking of course. But the imposing home-made “Metal Sentry” found on the Kady Ranch entrance is sure to generate a smile or two.

Short Weekend, Tall Hike

The Sweet Grass Hills are one hundred and fifteen Miles from Great Falls, Montana and there are only two days in a weekend.  So make the most of it. Ride north into The Sweet Grass Hills well into the night. Pop your tent along the roadside for a peaceful night then enjoy the magical morning of wildflowers, cool breezes and if you are lucky, an Elk or two. With an early start your chances of seeing some of the four hundred Sweet Grass Hills Elk are pretty good.

We’re Burning Daylight – Let’s Go

The Sweet Grass Hills is surrounded by private property.  Be sure you locate the trail head and stay on public lands so future generations can experience this location. The walk is full of false summits, you think you are near the destination only to discover the top of East Butte is still far away. No worries, it gives us a short stopping point to enjoy the early morning views of the prairie below.

Please Leave No Trace

When you reach the summit catch your breath, take some pictures and leave only footprints.  You can see tattered remnants of people trying to leave their name and date on the peak for all eternity. As you can see the long Montana winter slowly erase all traces of their names.

The ” Vision Quest Pit” On East Butte

Our imagination ran wild after discovering the man-made pit (see pictures below) on the summit of East Butte. Is this a possible “Vision Quest” site?  Archaeologists are still debating the purpose of these pits. The most accepted theory is that these pits were built by Native Americans seeking a vision of their guardian spirit through a combination of physical exertion, deprivation and isolation. Under this theory, Native Americans would have spent several days building these pits, then meditating in them without food or human interaction in order to achieve a spiritual experience.

On To Antenna Hill

Let’s continue out hike in the Sweet Grass Hills by dropping north on the saddle then back up to Antenna Hill. As we walk towards Antenna Hill look at all the paths created by the four hundred elk living in the hill (picture below).  On the wind blown saddle we found the remains of a rock foundation. We wonder if it was a crude shelter for miners from the 1880’s. Nearby you can see where someone was digging in the rock hoping to find gold.