Swan River is a tributary of Flathead Lake. The Swan River starts in the Mission Mountains at Grey Wolf Lake and continues north to Swan Lake. Then it goes west and over a dam into Bigfork Bay and the town of Bigfork where it enters Flathead Lake. It is a moderately sized river, having carved the Swan Valley. The Swan River National Wildlife Refuge is located in northwest Montana, 32 miles southeast of the town of Creston, in the serene and picturesque Swan Valley Mountain Range. The refuge boundary lies within the flood plain of the Swan River above Swan Lake and between the Swan Mountain Range to the east and the Mission Mountain Range to the west. The valley was formed when glacial ice poured down the steep slopes of the Mission Range The valley floor is generally flat, but rises steeply to adjacent forested mountain sides. Most of the refuge lies within this valley floodplain, which is composed mainly of reed canary grass. Deciduous and coniferous forests comprise the rest. Swan River, which once meandered through the floodplain, has been forced to the west side of the refuge by deposits of silt, leaving a series of oxbow sloughs within the refuge floodplain. Click here for more information.

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