Sun River canyon
— — where the plains run out of room.
Not only on a wall.
“The Sun River cuts a hard line into the Rocky Mountain Front west of Augusta, the place on the map where the high plains meet the first wall of the Northern Rockies with almost no foothills between. The road follows the river into the canyon to Gibson Reservoir and stops. Bighorn sheep work the slopes above the road through the cold months. The cliffs go orange in late light. Most years there is more wind than traffic, and the canyon holds a quiet that the open country outside does not. from the studio
Sun River canyon, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Sun River Canyon sits on the Rocky Mountain Front in Lewis and Clark County, about twenty miles west of the small town of Augusta. The river drains the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex east through a narrow break in the front range, where the high plains meet the Northern Rockies with almost no foothills as a transition. The canyon road follows the river west from the Sun Canyon turnoff to Gibson Reservoir, a Bureau of Reclamation lake completed in 1929. Beyond the reservoir, travel is by trail into the Bob Marshall.
The Rocky Mountain Front is one of the windiest corridors in the lower forty-eight, with chinook winds spilling east off the divide through the cold months. Those winds keep south-facing slopes in the canyon largely snow-free in winter and concentrate one of the largest wintering populations of Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep in the state. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks manages the Sun River Wildlife Management Area on the canyon floor as winter range for several thousand elk in addition to the sheep.
From Augusta, the Sun Canyon Road runs about twenty miles west to Gibson Reservoir, the road's end. The route is paved most of the way and turns to gravel near the reservoir. There is a small recreation area, a campground, and a boat ramp at the lake, all managed by the Lewis and Clark National Forest. Beyond the reservoir, foot and stock trails enter the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex, the third-largest wilderness area in the lower forty-eight. Services in Augusta are limited to a few small businesses.