The Refuge is located in a high elevation mountain valley with the east-west running Centennial Mountains providing the southern border. Winters are long and cold with summers being short and mild. In short, the Centennial Valley is an undeveloped valley where nature is still in control and ruggedness prevails.  

Special Facts 

Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge is located in the middle of an important wildlife corridor wildlife corridor
To maintain healthy species populations and ecosystems, fish and wildlife need the freedom to move and migrate. As habitats and migration routes are affected by climate change and fragmented by roads, fences, energy development and other man-made barriers, wildlife struggle to reach necessary areas to feed, breed and find shelter. A wildlife corridor is a piece of undeveloped land connecting two habitats so wildlife can move safely between them.

Learn more about wildlife corridor linking the Greater Yellowstone and the High Divide ecosystems. More specifically, the Refuge:

• Protects over 83,000 acres of the Centennial Valley in southwest Montana—the least developed valley of its size in the state
• Encompasses the largest wetland complex in the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem
• Contains 3,300 acres of sandhills habitat—a place that contains several regionally rare plants and invertebrates
• Represents one of the most diverse Refuges in the contiguous United States, with 45 identified vegetation associations
• Played an integral role in the continental restoration of trumpeter swans
• Continues to provide critical nesting habitat for a tri-state flock of trumpeter swans
• Supports a large portion of the last native population of Arctic grayling in the contiguous United States
• Provides habitat for one of the highest-density wintering moose populations in Montana
• Is in an area that has a rich paleohistory as a gathering spot for people and wildlife throughout time
• Occurs in an area of early non-native exploration and settlement, and has historic buildings originally constructed by the Works Progress Administration
• Has broad range of partnerships that are integral to every aspect of refuge management, including hunting, fishing, and research
• Provides visitors with a multitude of wildlife-dependent recreational opportunities in a remote, peaceful, beautiful setting
• Encompasses a 32,500-acre designated wilderness area wilderness area
  Wilderness areas are places untamed by humans. The Wilderness Act of 1964 allows Congress to designate wilderness areas for protection to ensure that America's pristine wild lands will not disappear. Wilderness areas can be part of national wildlife refuges, national parks, national forests or public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management.
  
  Learn more about wilderness area

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