HD 622 covers the country around Ekalaka itself, the Chalk Buttes, the Ekalaka Hills, and Capitol Rock—the cluster of isolated ponderosa-pine and sandstone-butte features in Carter County south of the Long Pines. Elevations run from about 3,000 feet on the surrounding prairie to 4,500 feet on the higher buttes (Capitol Rock, the Chalk Buttes ridges, the Ekalaka Hills). The country is the unique SE MT pine-and-butte landscape: dramatic isolated ponderosa-pine ridges and chalk-stone buttes rising out of sage prairie, with juniper-and-mountain mahogany draws, sandstone outcrops, and creek bottoms with cottonwood-and-willow. Capitol Rock—a striking white sandstone formation—is one of the visual landmarks of SE Montana. Mule deer use the breaks and timbered ridges; whitetail in the bottoms; pronghorn on the prairie surrounds; some elk in the deeper pine ridges (the Long Pines and Ekalaka Hills herds bleed into 622); Merriam's turkeys in the pines. Custer Gallatin NF (Sioux Ranger District), BLM tracts, and significant private ranchland. Block Management is essential. Limited road access—the county dirt road grid handles the bulk of access, all gumbo when wet. MT-7 from Baker provides the only paved approach. Ekalaka is the supply town with gas, groceries, the Wagon Wheel cafe, the bar, the Carter County Museum (the dinosaur fossil collection is genuinely worth a stop and the only T. rex skull-cast on display in the state). Belle Fourche SD is southeast. Cell service is essentially gone. The country produces good animals on the right ranch or the right BLM block; the trick is the access logistics.