Benton Lake National Wildlife Refuge

Benton Lake National Wildlife Refuge

Parks Directory of the United States / National Wildlife Refuges

Address: 922 Bootlegger Trail
Great Falls, MT 59404
Phone: 406-727-7400;
Fax: 406-727-7432;
Web: bentonlake.fws.gov
Established: 1929.
Location: 12 miles north of Great Falls, on the western edge of the northern Great Plains.
Facilities: Visitor contact station, viewing sites, boardwalk, hiking trails, auto tour route.
Activities: Fishing, hiking, hunting, cross-country skiing, ice skating, wildlife observation.
Special Features: During spring and fall migrations, up to 150,000 ducks, 40,000 snow geese, 2,500 Canada geese, 5,000 tundra swans, and perhaps as many as 50,000 shorebirds use the marsh. During an average breeding season, the refuge produces 20,000 ducks, and 10,000 Franklin's gulls nests.
Habitats: 12,383 acres of native shortgrass prairie surrounded by mountain ranges on three sides. Benton Lake is a 5,000-acre shallow marsh.
Access: Open year round during daylight hours.
Wild life: Water birds including snow geese, tundra swans, shorebirds, avocets, phalaropes, willets, and grebes. Also provides habitat for native prairie birds, bald eagles, peregrine falcons, and mammals such as raccoon, weasel, and coyote.

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See other parks in Montana.