Gary,
Our back road trips were mostly just through the forest. We saw no wildlife on any of the back roads.
The only where I remember the road numbers started 1.25 NE of Hill City on Highway 385/16. Turn north on China Gulch RD (NF249). stay on NF249, my GPS later showed it as Middle Nugget Gulch RD, until it ends at Edelweiss Mountain RD. Turn left and go to Silver City. From Silver City you can take T299 (Silver City RD) back to 385.
Before reaching Edelweiss you will ford a creek about 6 times. It seemed fairly deep to me on a couple of crossings but I had no problem with the Liberty. (I also had Frank behind me in his raised Rubicon to pull me out if there was a problem). The creek may be lower now with less snow melt.
The drive was interesting, but the scenery was just trees. The road starts off as a good gravel road and deteriorates as it continues.
Personally I enjoyed the paved "wildlife" road in Custer State park more.
ken