Where the Antelope Roam

[Nameless Range]

She had no business being where she was. I saw an antelope doe 8 miles up Lump Gulch, south of Helena, Montana, and over 10 miles from the nearest antelope population. She could have walked up the Prickly Pear Drainage, turned west, and walked 8 Miles up Lump Gulch. But the way she was headed, at 6300 feet, it was like she was taking to the timber.

I've lived in this area off and on most of my life and never seen an antelope up there, much less this far back in the woods.

Anybody else ever seen antelope roaming in places you wouldn't typically expect?

 

[mdunc8]

No antelope stories, but I did this guy wandering around the timber in the Madisons at about 6,500 ft and many miles from where I thought any sensible goat would be hanging out.

 

[roadhunter]

Occasionally Moose come through NW Nebraska.

Another moose appears to be making his rounds across the northern Panhandle. The moose was spotted five miles west of Hemingford on the south side of Highway 71 on Thursday afternoon. The animal was first spotted lying in a bean field northwest of Hemingford Thursday morning. Similar spottings have occurred in recent months at Lake Minatare and east of Scottsbluff.

 

[duckhunt]

Occasionally we will get a black bear wonder into northeast iowa.

 

[JWP58]

I bumped in to 3 antelope at about 8k on the side of a mountain about 5 weeks ago.....I was surprised.

 

[ShootsManyBullets]

Occasionally I meet a liberal out in the field.

 

[Topgun 30-06]

Occasionally I meet a liberal out in the field.

Do you talk them to death or just shoot them, LOL?!!!

 

[----]

That is a crazy place for an antelope to wander. When we had that herd winter in Clinton a couple years ago I was blown away by the country they would've had to cover to get into there. At some point they went straight through a forest and through some cliffy canyon.

Down around the Snowcrests/Ruby/Lima area I'm always surprised to see antelope in the 8000-8500 foot area. It's usually still in wide open sage, but just super high elevation.

Going off Mdunc's post, my wife and I saw this goat in the lower Clark Fork a couple years ago. He was at maybe 3800 feet, in a rocky outcropping. He was at least 4 miles and 3000 feet vertical from what you would assume to be goat country.

 

[Stone_Ice_1]

I've seen plenty of goats in the Lower Clark Fork area. Some drinking out of the river itself and not a cliff in sight. Elevation at the river is in the 2000's at that point. I think there is a good population there.

 

[mdunc8]

Down around the Snowcrests/Ruby/Lima area I'm always surprised to see antelope in the 8000-8500 foot area. It's usually still in wide open sage, but just super high elevation.

That's where I spent the last few days before I left. We actually saw a few up in the timber. Awesome country down there.

 

[1_pointer]

I saw a buck pronghorn come out of a patch of quakies at pretty high elevation (not sure the exact amount) in western WY. Long ways and a lot of cover from the herds down on the flats near there.

 

[----]

I've seen plenty of goats in the Lower Clark Fork area. Some drinking out of the river itself and not a cliff in sight. Elevation at the river is in the 2000's at that point. I think there is a good population there.

This guy was in the Superior area and would have been part of the very, very small Great Burn population. Last I heard I think they figured there might be a dozen goats in there.

 

[Topgun 30-06]

I see them a lot of times up at 7,000'-8,000' where we hunt deer and elk in Wyoming.

 

[2rocky]

I saw a buck pronghorn come out of a patch of quakies at pretty high elevation (not sure the exact amount) in western WY. Long ways and a lot of cover from the herds down on the flats near there.

This one was in Grizzly bear and Elk Country at 8500 feet or so.

 

[Stone_Ice_1]

This guy was in the Superior area and would have been part of the very, very small Great Burn population. Last I heard I think they figured there might be a dozen goats in there.

I was actually thinking farther downstream. I've seen goats drinking out of Noxon Reservoir and near Trout Creek. I'm sure they come out of the Cabinets, but the elevation there is quite low at the reservoir and river.

 

[fishing4sanity]

Maybe we were in the same place as 2rocky, but my sons shot their antelope bucks at 8,500 to 9,000 feet elevation. I was surprised to find them that high, so we brought them back down to a much lower elevation.

 

[Missoulaz28]

An Antelope showed up in the foothills around Lolo a few years ago, he was ~30 miles from the nearest resident heard.

 

[shoots-straight]

An Antelope showed up in the foothills around Lolo a few years ago, he was ~30 miles from the nearest resident heard.

After the fires of 2000 a small group ended up in the East Fork of the Bitterroot. Eventually they moved north to the old Bitterroot Stock Farm East of Hamilton. No Bucks and an effort to augment the herd was stopped because Ranchers don't want any lopes in the Root. They might of died off by now though.

 

[smarandr]

Saw these at about 8,000 feet this weekend and thought about this thread. They were literally about 100 feet below a pass I was driving over on my way home from camping this weekend.