Bad Rock Canyon is a

river canyon A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...

lying east of

Columbia Falls, Montana Columbia Falls is a city along the Flathead River in Flathead County, Montana, United States. The population was 5,308 at the 2020 census. Columbia Falls has been ranked as one of the best and safest places to live in Montana. History The ...

. The Flathead River, flanked by

U.S. Highway 2 U.S. Route 2 or U.S. Highway 2 (US 2) is an east–west U.S. Highway spanning across the northern continental United States. US 2 consists of two segments connected by various roadways in southern Canada. Unlike some routes, whi ...

, flows through the canyon and enters Montana's Flathead Valley.

Rock slide A rockslide is a type of landslide caused by rock failure in which part of the bedding plane of failure passes through compacted rock and material collapses ''en masse'' and not in individual blocks. Note that a rockslide is similar to an avalanc ...

s occur frequently along the northern side of the

BNSF Railway BNSF Railway is one of the largest freight railroads in North America. One of seven North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 35,000 employees, of track in 28 states, and nearly 8,000 locomotives. It has three transcontinental routes that ...

tracks that run through the canyon.

History

For centuries the canyon was a part of the buffalo trail leading through the

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico in ...

to the buffalo hunting grounds on the

Great Plains The Great Plains (french: Grandes Plaines), sometimes simply "the Plains", is a broad expanse of flatland in North America. It is located west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, an ...

. Towns nearest the canyon are

Hungry Horse Hungry Horse is a chain of 284 pub restaurants in England, Wales and Scotland which is owned by Greene King Brewery. It was first established in 1995 and promotes itself as offering low cost meals for families and groups. Work began on a new p ...

immediately to the east and Martin City father to the east. The town of Coram lies a few miles father northeast, about 5 miles from the western entrance of Glacier National Park at

West Glacier, Montana West Glacier is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in eastern Flathead County, Montana, Flathead County, Montana, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census it had a population of 227. The town is at ...

Indian buffalo hunts

The plateau tribes—

Kalispel The Pend d'Oreille ( ), also known as the Kalispel (), are Indigenous peoples of the Northwest Plateau. Today many of them live in Montana and eastern Washington of the United States. The Kalispel peoples referred to their primary tribal range a ...

, Pend d'Oreilles (Upper Kalispel), Spokane, Coeur d'Alene, and

Kootenai The Kutenai ( ), also known as the Ktunaxa ( ; ), Ksanka ( ), Kootenay (in Canada) and Kootenai (in the United States), are an indigenous people of Canada and the United States. Kutenai bands live in southeastern British Columbia, northern ...

—as well as the nearby

Flathead tribe Flathead may refer to: Peoples * Flathead people, one of three tribes of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Nation in Montana. * The Flathead, or Flathead Indian (or Amerindian) tribe more formally known as the Confe ...

would pass through this area for their buffalo hunts. Plains tribes, primarily the Blackfeet, would travel through the area seeking to capture the good

horses The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million yea ...

raised by the western tribes. Oral tradition suggests that some battles may have taken place in the canyon.

Gateway to wilderness areas

Bad Rock Canyon is the entryway to the Bob Marshall Wilderness, the

Hungry Horse Dam Hungry Horse Dam is an arch dam in the Western United States, western United States, on the South Fork Flathead River in the Rocky Mountains of northwest Montana. It is located in Flathead National Forest in Flathead County, Montana, Flathead Cou ...

and Hungry Horse Recreation Area, and Glacier National Park. The U.S. Highway 2 pull-off area within the canyon has some interesting water features, particularly when frozen. There is a

spring Spring(s) may refer to: Common uses * Spring (season), a season of the year * Spring (device), a mechanical device that stores energy * Spring (hydrology), a natural source of water * Spring (mathematics), a geometric surface in the shape of a ...

on the south side of the canyon that is used as a water source by many local residents.

Rock slides

Frequent

rock slide A rockslide is a type of landslide caused by rock failure in which part of the bedding plane of failure passes through compacted rock and material collapses ''en masse'' and not in individual blocks. Note that a rockslide is similar to an avalanc ...

s occur along the northern side of the

tracks that traverse through the canyon. Railway slide fences have been installed by the railroad to detect and prevent slides from damaging the rails or hitting trains that are passing through the canyon. Rock slides also occur on the U.S. Highway 2 side of the canyon, but less frequently due to rock formation stabilization efforts.

References

{{reflist Canyons and gorges of Montana Northwestern United States