The west slope of the Crazy Mountain district falls in portions of Meagher, Park and Sweet Grass Counties north of Interstate 90, Livingston and the Yellowstone River. Thousands of acres of the Custer Gallatin and the Lewis and Clark National Forest encompass the Crazy Mountains. Some portions of the Crazy Mountains are difficult to reach due to private land blocking access. Elk, mule deer and whitetails are harvested each year by residents and nonresidents.

It is tough access to public lands especially in the mountains below the Shields River. Majority of elk spend the winter on private ranches below 7,000 feet.

The Crazy Mountains consists of nearly vertical peaks and sawtooth ridges. Iddings Peak reaches close to 11,000 feet rising some 7,000 above the Yellowstone River Valley. From north to south the elevation increases dramatically once the Shields River drainage is crossed. The mountains in the north are densely forested on moderate slopes, a big contrast to the peaks in the south that are above timberline, extremely rocky and steep. The rangelands to the west are rolling with a few buttes above 6,000 feet marking the landscape.

Alpine basins and slopes support vast open areas of wildflowers, grasses, moss and lichens along with small clusters of barren ground willows. Below treeline dense forest of spruce, fir and pine cover the steep slopes only broken up by creeks and small parks of lush grasses. Dropping onto the foothills are ridges with mountain mahogany, bitterbrush, oak brush, other mountain shrubs along with groves of aspen and stands of willows. Rangelands have short grasses, blue grama and buffalo, sage brush with stands of cottonwoods and willows along creek bottoms.

This district is made up of a mixture of private and public lands making access to the western slope of the Crazy Mountains difficult due to locked gates that block public land access and checkerboard land ownership patterns within National Forest. Public access to National Forest lands is provided by Forest Service roads leading to 5 legal access points including Smith Creek, the Upper Shields River, Porcupine Creek, Cottonwood/Ibex, and Rock Creek. There is a couple of Block Management Areas (BMA) in the northern portion that joins the National Forest providing access. The majority of BMA’s are located off Montana Route 89 near the western boundary in rolling rangelands.

Custer Gallatin and Lewis and Clark National Forest allow camping for up to 16 days in one location. Livingston along the Yellowstone River provides RV and tent campsites, motels, café and restaurants, medical facilities, 24/7 gas and diesel. Further to the west on Interstate 90 the city of Bozeman offers a variety of motels, restaurants, a regional hospital and airport.