From this mountain pass at 7,460 feet above sea level, sweeping views extend across more than 400 square miles of land that largely resembles its appearance of centuries past. Human travel routes here have also changed little, and Highway 278 closely follows the path Captain Clark and his crew took eastward in 1806 along what he called an “excellent road,” a route Native Americans had worn into the land over generations. This pass was one of the highest elevations traveled by members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The surrounding country lies in the heart of western Montana’s cattle country, and since the mid-1800s Beaverhead County has been home to more cattle than most places in America. At the foot of the slope, the Hamilton Ranch includes portions of a homestead established here in the late 1800s, and today the ranch preserves its historic sites and works to maintain the landscape through a program called Undaunted Stewardship®.