Red Rock Lakes is best known for being the primary location for the efforts saving the trumpeter swan from extinction, which by 1932 had fewer than 200 known specimens in the United States and Canada.

The trumpeters are now so plentiful that efforts are being undertaken to help them reestablish historical migratory routes to areas further south in the Rocky Mountains and the Great Basin region.

The lakes and cold water marshlands provide a relatively uncommon wetland environment favored by certain waterfowl and predatory birds such as the bald eagle and peregrine falcon.

Numerous mammals can also be found here such as the American black bear, the Rocky Mountain elk, moose, mule deer, pronghorn, beaver, mink and badger.

Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge is located 28 miles (45 km) east of Monida, Montana off Interstate 15.