Anaconda-Pintler Mountains
United States / ANACONDA, Montana
Location ID: #19
The Anaconda-Pintler Wilderness is a 158,516-acre wilderness of rugged mountains saddling the Continental Divide located in southwestern Montana approximately 22 miles west of Anaconda, Montana. It is known for its high, rugged, and beautiful mountain scenery where mountain goats make their home. Elevations range from 5,100 feet in the lower reaches to 10,793 feet on West Goat Peak where the effects of past glaciation dominate the land.
This secluded stretch of the Great Divide gives rise to some of the world's finest trout streams, including Rock Creek and the Big Hole River. Cirques and hanging valleys with dozens of alpine lakes, long U-shapes forested valleys, and glacial moraines form a wilderness wonderland. Year-round snowbanks feed tumbling streams that rest only briefly in deep, canyon-lined pools. Inhabitants of this high country include mountain goats, flying squirrels, and thirteen varieties of raptors. Elk, moose, deer, bears, mountain lions and a multitude of smaller mammals and birds also call the Anaconda-Pintler Wilderness home. Vegetation includes sagebrush, willow flats, ponderosa pine, Douglas fir, lodge pole pine, aspen, subalpine fir, white bark pine and subalpine larch. The vegetative mosaic changes with elevation, aspect, geology and fire history.