Warm Springs State Wildlife Management Area

Hi Blog!

Our last day in Deer Lodge was Thursday, July 27, 2017. Since we had already visited all the tourist stops the last time we were here, we decided to get out and about in the surrounding area. South of Deer Lodge is the town of Anaconda - where cooper was king.

Located at the foot of the Anaconda Range, the Continental Divide passes within 8 miles south of the community. Anaconda was founded by Marcus Daly, one of the Copper Kings, who financed the construction of a smelter on nearby Warm Springs Creek to process copper ore from the Butte mines.

All of the waste water from the smelter process was dumped into Warm Springs Creek. In 1980, this area was declared a SuperFund site. Retention ponds were constructed where the heavy metals from the smelting process could settle out before the water proceeded down stream. We parked at a picnic area on the east side of the largest pond. We decided to hike across the dike between two of the ponds. Here Kathy takes a break to watch several family of geese teach their young how to forage for grub.

The ponds are being managed by the state of Montana as a wildlife area. The banks of the dike were just brimming with wildlife.

As we reached the far side of the dike, a spillway added water to the Clark Fork River. This area is a flyfishing mecca. Because of the pollution, this part of the river is catch and release only. Because no fish are ever taken, they have grown to tremendous size.

On our hike back to the picnic area, we played hopscotch with three different blue herons. Because they are so shy, we never got close enough to catch a photo.

We found a couple feathers along our hike, which we plan to bring home to Flip, our cat. She has quite a collection of feathery play things. Here is Kathy Two-Feathers showing off Flip's latest additions to her collection.

With the possibility of thunderstorms, we decided to finish up our hike and head to Anaconda for lunch. We ended up at Peppermint Pattie's for their famous pork chop sandwich. While the pork chop was tender, it was breaded and deep fried which added more calories and fat than we would have like.

While we saw lots of geese, anhinga, ducks and song birds, we never saw any deer in the wildlife management area. However, on our coffee walk, we saw this sweet little girl about a block from our campground. Sometimes, that's just the way it goes.

Tomorrow, we head back into Idaho as we work our way down to Utah. Not sure what we will find when we get there, but I'm sure it will be fun! Stat tunes.