The Big Hole Battlefield Trail begins in the Sula Basin of the Bitterroot Range, crosses the Continental Divide, then follows Trail'Creek for about sixteen miles to the western park boundary of Big Hole National Battlefield.
The 221/2 miles of proposed trail follows the route of the Nez Perce Flight in 1877 from the Sula Basin to the Big Hole Battlefield. This same route was also used by Colonel John Gibbon's Seventh Infantrymen as they hurried to their encounter with the Nez Perce at the Big Hole in 1877, by General Howard's military command as they too followed the fleeing Nez Perce, and at various other times by settlers and miners as they passed from the mining communities of Montana and Idaho over the mountains to the Bitterroot Valley.
