We started the day with one more visit to Glacier National Park. Our main destination was the scenic "Trail of the Cedars" hike, through a mature cedar forest. This was a nice walk, albeit short, because of bears sighted further along on the trail. We did get our desired look at a VARIED THRUSH, a new one to our life list. They unique chorus of calls were echoing through this forest, which was also cool.
After this we left Glacier, driving west towards Kalispell where we had lunch (Arctic Circle) . From here we headed south to the National Bison Range National Wildlife Refuge, a grassland area with a large herd of buffaloes. We spent most of the afternoon on this parks driving tour and taking some of its hikes. We got a good variety of views of buffalo (who were blocking the road at times!), as well as a good variety of bird sightings. (GOLDEN EAGLE, LAZULI BUNTING, SPOTTED TOWHEE, VESPER SPARROW, EASTERN and WESTERN KINGBIRD, BLACK-BILLED MAGPIE, WESTERN MEADOWLARK, and NORTHERN HARRIER). We also saw lots of BISON and PRONGHORN ANTELOPE.
At the end of the day, after a dinner at McDonald's in Missoula, we headed west on US-12 over Lolo Pass into Idaho. This is remote and beautiful country, and the site of where I saw a semi flip over in front of me in 1996!
It ended up being a very late night arrival in McCall, Idaho at the hotel stop for the night.
NATIONAL BISON RANGE PHOTOS
A view of nearby St. Ignatus from the range.
Below: Views of some of the grasslands habitat typical of the Bison Range.
Here are some of the bison and pronghorn photos from our tour:
On western from Missoula....
BIRD PHOTOS
Red-Naped Sapsucker (Hungry Horse, MT)
National Bison Range Bird Photos:
Eastern Kingbird
Lazuli Bunting
Spotted Towhee
Golden Eagle
Western Meadowlark 
Three Above: Vesper Sparrows
Black-Billed Magpie
Northern Harrier
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