HD 555 covers the eastern Beartooth foothill country around Bridger and Belfry—the dramatic step-up from the Bighorn River basin and Clarks Fork Valley into the Beartooth Front. Elevations run from about 4,000 feet on the Clarks Fork bottom to over 11,000 feet on the Beartooth peaks where the unit reaches into wilderness. The country is one of the more visually striking transitions in Montana—desert benches and irrigated hayland in the valley below give way to limestone reefs, hogback ridges, deep canyons (Pat O'Hara Creek, Bear Creek, Sage Creek), and timbered foothills climbing into the high Beartooth alpine. The lower flanks are open Douglas fir and limber pine parkland with juniper-and-mountain mahogany on the rocky reefs; mid-elevations are dense lodgepole; the upper drainages climb into spruce-fir and alpine. Mule deer in the limestone reef country and the timbered breaks; elk in the higher drainages; mountain goats and the occasional bighorn on the cliffs; whitetail in the river bottoms. Custer-Gallatin NF on the high country and the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness on the upper edge, BLM scattered through the foothills (some real walkable tracts in the Pat O'Hara country), and significant private ranchland on the lower flanks and valley floor. US-310 north-south through Bridger and Belfry is the paved spine; forest and BLM roads (Pat O'Hara, Bear Creek, Sage Creek) climb into the foothills. Bridger has gas, basic services; Belfry is tiny; Red Lodge is north for full services; Cody WY is south just over the line. Cell service holds along US-310 and weakens off it. The reef country mule deer hunt is the headline opportunity for hunters who walk away from the truck.