Having spent the morning climbing the rather precipitous trail up along Swan Creek we all opted for an afternoon ride. The plan was to look for buffalo. Apparently the gang hadn't had there fill when we stopped in South Dakota's Custer state park. I had the solution, a first ever visit for Gary and Rosie to Ted Turner's Flying D Ranch south of Bozeman Withapproximately two million acres of personal and ranch land, Ted Turner is the
second largest individual landholder in North America. Turner lands are
innovatively managed and work to partner economic viability with ecological
sustainability. All Turner ranches operate as working businesses, relying on
bison and outfitting as principal enterprises. The Flying D
is an 113,613-acre ranch. A nine mile public road crosses the ranch on the way to a National Forest Campground and trout stream. Naturally I'd been there before. Take a look at a few thousand buffalo.......
In the middle of increasing development pressures in the GallatinValley and Big Sky, the Flying D remains protected open space by virtue of a
conservation easement donated to the Nature Conservancy in 1989.
awesome! love the roll-over shot!
ReplyDeleteOh, I've never been there either - it's now on my to-do list for next time :-)
ReplyDeleteNice post, TB.
Totally emjoying your trip!
ReplyDeleteGreat shots...
Great shots!
ReplyDeleteI would love to drive that stretch of road! Wonderful shots of the Buffalo! :)
ReplyDeleteWow! Had no clue about Ted's holdings. :c) Neat to see all those buffalo roaming around.
ReplyDeleteOne interesting thing Turner has done is to give millions of dollars to the effort to overturn our stream access laws, which permit the public to be on rivers below the mean high water mark, even on private lands. Were Turner to succeed, a lot of fisheries up here would be closed to us. While he has done many philanthropic things, he's not beloved by sportsmen up here.
ReplyDeleteI was there in 1957. It is wonderful to have the buffalo all around to see. I need to return someday.
ReplyDeleteI've never been there, but would like to take that 9 mile drive to see all the buffalo!
ReplyDeleteAlways nice to see bison returning to some larger numbers. Mr. Turner is quite a force in preservation. That first shot is just AWESOME!
ReplyDeleteI worked plant transects,studies with grazing, in Custer. Those docile little bovine can jump 6-8 foot.Great shots.
ReplyDeleteI love it when forward-thinking people do things with conservation easements. Nice to think there will be no condo's there in the future!
ReplyDeletefantastic news about the Turner land, did not know this and someone needs to keep our land like it used to be without all the concrete. I wonder if Ted could do something about the English language. HA HA. LOVE the baby and the rolling buffalo. i have seen 2 but they were in a wild life preserve
ReplyDeleteThose pictures are awesome!
ReplyDeleteSandy
Aren't they amazing creatures! I like the back scratch roll-over! Haha!
ReplyDeletexo Catherine
Where the buffalo roam," indeed. Not that I'm recommending the movie, though.
ReplyDeleteDidn't know that about TT, interesting. 113K acres, wow! That's quite a chunk, hope he doesn't overgraze it! :)
ReplyDeleteThis place is beautiful! I love Montana. I can only imagine how amazing this spot must be.
ReplyDeleteWow! I can only begin to imagine what it must be like to see all this in person!! Thanks so much for sharing the sights. I've gone nowhere this summer so thank you for the next best thing.
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