Medicine Lodge Creek Road

Just came back from a really nice little adventure. My friend and I had been planning this trip for awhile and, given the weather of late, figured that this could be the last shot until next spring. So we took off this morning, heading south on I-15, to the 278, towards Bannock State Park. After 20 miles on the dirt, and seeing what is left of the town of Grants (a tiny school- go Gophers!-and a combination bar/restaurant/hotel/welding shop), we got onto Medicine Lodge Creek Rd, a National Back Country byway.
This road was established in 1862 to haul freight between the gold camp at Bannock and Corinne, UT, and we did close to 80 miles on dirt before rejoining I-15 at Dell. Incredible scenery, mostly passing through land held by the Hanson Livestock Company; they have been ranching there for well over 100 years. Already, there is a lot of snow at higher elevations.
We saw at least 200 antelope, close to 100 deer, a dozen cow elk, 8 bull elk, and a bull moose. Some of the deer were grazing with cattle, which I had only seen once before. The cow elk were with cattle, which I had never seen before. To top it off I had lunch at El Toro restaurant in Dillon- real Mexican food, and even real Mexicans, both of which are very rare in Montana. Saw one other vehicle in that whole time on the dirt, and almost manged to hit it head on, as I was gawking at the amount of water in Sheep Creek.