The Garnet Range, highest point Old Baldy Mountain, elevation , is a

mountain range A mountain range or hill range is a series of mountains or hills arranged in a line and connected by high ground. A mountain system or mountain belt is a group of mountain ranges with similarity in form, structure, and alignment that have arise ...

northeast of

Drummond, Montana Drummond is a town in Granite County, Montana, United States. The population was 272 at the 2020 census. Geography Drummond is located at (46.667983, -113.146355). The town can be accessed via exits 153 and 154 on Interstate 90. It is just no ...

Powell County, Montana Powell County is a county in the U.S. state of Montana. As of the 2020 census, the population was 6,946. Its county seat is Deer Lodge. Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is ...

. A popular historic site, Garnet Ghost Town, is in the Garnet Range. Situated on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land, the ghost town is the remnant of a mining settlement that was inhabited from the late 1800s to the 1930s. The town's population reached several thousand during its peak. A visitor center and self-guided tours are available. Although heavily forested, no portion of the Garnet Range is part of the National Forest system. The BLM owns much of the range, including the 11,580-acre Wales Creek Wilderness Study Area. The Wales Creek WSA is the last major drainage area without a road in the western Garnets, and features dense forests of

lodgepole pine ''Pinus contorta'', with the common names lodgepole pine and shore pine, and also known as twisted pine, and contorta pine, is a common tree in western North America. It is common near the ocean shore and in dry montane forests to the subalpin ...

, spruce, Douglas fir, larch, aspen, and

subalpine fir ''Abies lasiocarpa'', the subalpine fir or Rocky Mountain fir, is a western North American fir tree. Description ''Abies lasiocarpa'' is a medium-sized evergreen conifer with a very narrow conic crown, growing to tall, exceptionally , with a t ...

. Wales Creek WSA also hosts a thriving

moose The moose (in North America) or elk (in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is a member of the New World deer subfamily and is the only species in the genus ''Alces''. It is the largest and heaviest extant species in the deer family. Most adult ma ...

herd, goshawk nesting sites, a native cutthroat trout fishery, and four hot springs used in the past by miners and now by skiers and hunters. Another BLM Wilderness Study Area is in the eastern Garnets: the 11,380-acre Hoodoo Mountain WSA. This WSA is separated from unprotected BLM land in the Gallagher Creek drainage by a dirt road.

Petrified wood Petrified wood, also known as petrified tree (from Ancient Greek meaning 'rock' or 'stone'; literally 'wood turned into stone'), is the name given to a special type of '' fossilized wood'', the fossilized remains of terrestrial vegetation. ' ...

is found along streams in the Gallagher Creek area. On the southern slope of the Garnets near the town of Drummond, the BLM's Rattler Gulch

Area of Critical Environmental Concern Areas of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC) is a conservation ecology program in the Western United States, managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The ACEC program was conceived in the 1976 Federal Lands Policy and Management Act (F ...

protects 20 acres of exposed

Madison Group The Madison Limestone is a thick sequence of mostly carbonate rocks of Mississippian age in the Rocky Mountain and Great Plains areas of the western United States. The rocks serve as an important aquifer as well as an oil reservoir in places. Th ...

limestone cliffs. Parking is provided, as Rattler Gulch is a popular rock-climbing area. Grizzly bears have recently been confirmed inhabiting the Garnets.

Notes

External links

Garnet Range Back Country Byway (MT), BLM – Missoula Field Office
{{Montana Mountain ranges of Montana Landforms of Powell County, Montana

See also

Notes

External links