Since the early 20th century, the Allestad family has run sheep in Sweet Grass County, Montana. Each summer, they drove sheep from their ranch near Big Timber to summer pastures in Montana's rugged Absaroka-Beartooth mountain range, north of Yellowstone.
Between July and September of 2003, hired hands Pat Connolly and John Ahern drove the Allestads' 3,000 sheep south for the last time, and filmmakers Ilisa Barbash and Lucien Castaing-Taylor followed the sheep herders on the 150-mile trip in the documentary Sweetgrass.
Explore the herding route and the summer pasture areas in the interactive map below.
Having trouble using the interactive map? View it as a Google Map.
- Click and drag within the map to follow the herding route into the mountains (blue pins) and back (red pins).
- Click on a pin for photos and more information about the stops along the way.
- Want to start over? Reload the map.
Read more about the Absaroka-Beartooth mountains, discover surprising facts about sheep or explore links and books related to Sweetgrass.