Tetons,Yellowstone,Bitterroots Sept 07

85 days and counting...

This will be my 1st visit to this area, i'm looking forward to this. This is a trip we had planned last year for my son's HS Graduation but had to cancel. Heading out with 4 vehicles this trip, and plan to cover alot of ground so were opting for NF Cabins instead of camping. Hope we dont regret that decision.


The 1st cabin were hitting is outside Dillon, we wanted to check out some of the Bitterroots and eastern ID. We'll be coming up through the Tetons on the way out. We arrive in Laramie WY area on 9/16. We start our drive into the area on the morning of 9/17 through the Tetons and towards Dillon at a leisurely pace. We then have 5 days in Horse Prarie Guard Station cabin within Beaverhead NF.

http://www.fs.fed.us/r1/b-d/recreati...-prairie.shtml


Morning of 9/21 we head towards Bozeman enroute for our second Cabin. This cabin is Window Rock and we have it booked for 9/21 through 9/24. You'll notice we have both cabins booked for the 21st...that gives us some flexibility.

http://www.fs.fed.us/r1/gallatin/?pa...dow_rock_cabin


Plans are for some fly fishing, scenic horseback tour,ghost towning, and backcountry exploring. Love to find some old style saloons :cheers: as well.

Morning of 9/25 we head east towards Wall, SD for the Badlands where we will spend the 26th on a very nice scenic two track road we found in Buffalo Gap when we visited in 05.

Head back to Philly area on 9/27, arrive on 29th.

My bud and i have been out west a few times. I'v been to Colorado and the Badlands once. My bud has also been to Yellowstone area. My son and my buds BIL will also be coming along on this trip and have never been out west.

I'll update this thread as the trip approaches and will post pics from the road.

Sounds like fun. Take a spin along 93 in the Bitterrroot Valley, up to Missoula and then back down through the historic copper town of Butte. Stop by Lake Como (just north of Darby) for lunch.
Also visit the Big Hole National Battlefield on 43 between Wisdom and 93. That's where Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce fought off the US Cav and some volunteers and escaped northward in their attempt to reach Canada.

Don't forget to swing by the Custer Battlefield on the way out of Montana. Just off of I-90 and the 212.

sjkimmel99 said:

Sounds like fun. Take a spin along 93 in the Bitterrroot Valley, up to Missoula and then back down through the historic copper town of Butte. Stop by Lake Como (just north of Darby) for lunch.
Also visit the Big Hole National Battlefield on 43 between Wisdom and 93. That's where Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce fought off the US Cav and some volunteers and escaped northward in their attempt to reach Canada.

Don't forget to swing by the Custer Battlefield on the way out of Montana. Just off of I-90 and the 212.

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Thanks Steve! Made note of all your suggestions. :cheers:

Had another thought. If you like this kind of stuff pick up a copies of the "roadside geology" series of books for Montana and Wyoming. They describe what you see in the road cuts and the various terrain featurs (i.e., mountains, plateaus, folds, etc.. Plenty of that to see in those states.

Also get a guide to the Oregon trail. You should be able to find a bit of it between Laramie and whereever you head north to the Tetons. Here's a couple:

The Traveler's Guide to the Oregon Trail by Julie Fanselow - more modern and up to date(it's only 15 years old)
The Oregon Trail Yesterday and Today by William E. Hill.

See if you can swing by South Pass on the way through to the Tetons. That's where the trail came through pretty much the only break in the Rockies between Canada and New Mexico.

There's a section of it along Wyoming 28 right about here:
N42 20 43.39, W108 52 17.33.

Get out there and walk away from the vehicles along the swale for a bit and you can almost imagine there's nothing but dirt tracks and trails between you and the Mississippi.

I went to yellowstone with some friends for memorial day. The scenery was spectacular. The drive between Bozeman and west yellowstone was very pretty.

Here are a few teasers for ya.

Thanks again Steve!

LoneStar, great pics. I'm looking forward to seeing the park.

Anyone have any input on Ghost Towns i should see in the area?

This site's got a pretty good list: http://www.ghosttowns.com/ select the state at the top. In Wyoming, a couple of miles north of the Oregon Trail ruts is South Pass city - a mining camp you can walk around. Near Dillon, MT is Virginia City. Both of these are more what I'd call "restored" or "semi-functional" towns (Virginia City more so.) As opposed to completely abandoned locations such as you'd find in Colorado, Nevada or California where nobody's around, the buildings and mining structures are in various stages of disrepair and mining equipment is laying around. I don't know of anything like that in WY or MT but that doesn't mean it's not there.

For that matter Butte is a mining ghost town of the semi-functional sort. 15 years ago mine hoists were still standing all around town and the Berkely Pit was filled with nasty Coca Cola looking water. Must have been quite the place on payday in the boom days.

Anaconda, just to the west of Butte was home to the mighty Anaconda company smelter. It was pretty much dismantled then so I don't know if there'd be anything to look at now except signs saying Superfund site.

If your going to Park county, Montana at all, take a drive to Independence in the north end of the county. Elevation around 10,000 feet, fairly challenging road that will require 4wd, and some excellent scenery. Not very many people around, mostly due to the "road" conditions. Well worth the drive.

I don't have any pictures, as last time I went (last summer) I forgot my digital camera.

On my way back thru WY (see my thread a few down in this forum) I'm planning on heading thru South Pass City (actually, driving the South Pass loop).

mtnxj said:

If your going to Park county, Montana at all, take a drive to Independence in the north end of the county. Elevation around 10,000 feet, fairly challenging road that will require 4wd, and some excellent scenery. Not very many people around, mostly due to the "road" conditions. Well worth the drive.

I don't have any pictures, as last time I went (last summer) I forgot my digital camera.

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NF6639/Boulder Rd? It does look like some great scenery... thanks!

IntrepidXJ said:

On my way back thru WY (see my thread a few down in this forum) I'm planning on heading thru South Pass City (actually, driving the South Pass loop).

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Make sure you post up a few pics Randy! Looks like i'll be just west of that..probably running 191N from Rock Springs to Jackson, then through ID via the Teton Pass.

John B said:

NF6639/Boulder Rd? It does look like some great scenery... thanks!

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That's the one, and it is actually in the Southeast end of the county.

mtnxj said:

If your going to Park county, Montana at all, take a drive to Independence in the north end of the county. Elevation around 10,000 feet, fairly challenging road that will require 4wd, and some excellent scenery. Not very many people around, mostly due to the "road" conditions. Well worth the drive.

I don't have any pictures, as last time I went (last summer) I forgot my digital camera.

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The roads not that bad. 4wd yes but nothing challenging. Sweet road though. Suppostly there used to be a road that went all the way accrossed the mountain range there and came out at Cooke City. It's just a hiking trail now though. I thought it was at the end of the west boulder road out of Big Timber.

Morrision Jeep trail is another nice senic trip on top of the Beartooths.

Thanks for Morrison Weasel! I was hoping you'd see this thread and chime in.

I sent a request to AEV for a tour of their Missoula location, i'd like to check out a Brute build up close and personal.

Hopefully they approve the tour.

I just stumbled across this thread and thought I should chime in since I'm leaving for Missoula tomorrow! I'm driving our car to Minneapolis and then flying to Missoula where I'm renting a mid size car. From there we plan to head south making a loop by Painted Rocks reservoir before heading up to a lookout tower I've got reserved by Sula. McCart lookout. Its a mile and a half hike in, but should be a neat experience. From there I hope to drive the Magruder corridor west through Idaho, but I've been told it's no place for a rental car. We'll see. I need to be in Pullman Washington thursday to visit my son. We hope to go rafting on the Lochsa, do a little hiking, perhaps ride a gondola to the top of a mountain and maybe get in some biking on the Trail of the Hiawatha where one can ride over a number of trestles and through a number of tunnels. Too bad it's going to be 100 degrees in the lower elevations! Much less humidity than here in WI though I hope. Jeff

I'm back! Very nice trip! I did exactly what I said we would do. The weather was HOT, but the air in the rental car worked well. We stayed in Missoula Monday night after getting in about midnight. Tuesday we drove through the Bitteroot valley and down to painted rocks reservoir. Almost nobody was there. It was very beautiful and peaceful...till ONE wave runner began buzzing around! From there we headed south and over Woods Creek Pass (7190ft) and dropped down to Horse Creek Hot Springs for a dip in a really cool natural hot tub surrounded by cabin like walls. We drove back up to Woods Creek Pass, swung over to Horse Creek Pass (7305ft), and then dropped down on 044 to 038 to 030 and back to 93 at North Fork. Time was getting late, so we burned up 93 over Lost Trail Pass (7014ft) all the way to Sula, MT where we headed east on East Fork Road. Eventually, we turned right and headed up to Johnson Peak trail head. It was about 7pm or so and the sun was slowly dropping as well as the temperature, so the 1.5mi hike into McCart Lookout was not too taxing. (http://www.visitmt.com/categories/moreinfo.asp?IDRRecordId=6278&SiteId=1) The lookout was very neat and we had a nice night. It sure stayed light late perched so high in the mountains! Oh yeah, it got light EARLY too!

After hiking out, we backtracked to 93 and headed back down towards painted rocks reservoir, but part way in we turned west on the Magruder road. (http://www.fs.fed.us/r1/nezperce/maps/brochures/magruder.pdf) We slowly picked our way west for HOURS stopping here and there. We took the cutoff towards Paradise, but turned around before getting there due to the length of the dead end twisting road. I wish we could have made it all the way in as I was later told that it is very cool at the end where ONE raft trip a day is allowed to launch on the Selway river. We passed many large stands of burned timber as we climbed and dropped and picked our way over ruts and around larger rocks in the road on our way west. After Observation point, we hiked 1.5mi into Salmon Mountain lookout tower at 8944ft. We met a FS employee there who had just stocked the lookout for the season. We had a very informative chat with him and took many pictures of the rocky slopes and lakes in the area. There were a couple small snow fields left in the area. After resuming our drive, we somehow completely missed Horse Heaven rental cabin although we met some folks on the road who said they had stayed the last two nights there and it was very nice. Late in the day, we finally made it out to black topped 222 at Red River. We ran up 234 to Red River Hot Springs but were somewhat unimpressed with the private setup there, so we returned down the road a bit and camped at Red River National Forest Campground.

Thursday we kept moving west driving down the beautiful Red River and then South Fork Clearwater river canyons. Eventually, we climbed out of the canyon via Mt. Idaho Road and hit the rolling plains at Grangeville. We ran 95 to Lewiston where the Clearwater meets the Snake then climbed the hill on the northside eventually taking 195 to Pullman, WA where my son lives. We toured WSU, the area, and spent the night there.

Friday we took off from Pullman and headed west to Palouse Falls where a gigantic bowl had been dug below the falls by epic floods from glacial Lake Missoula. It was HOT out there though. We dropped south to the Snake and headed back East on 12 through Lewiston again. We followed 12 east along the Clearwater to where the Lochsa and Selway join to form the Clearwater. This is another BEAUTIFUL canyon. We ran up the Selway a bit and camped under some gigantic cedar trees.

Saturday we did a raft trip down a section of the Lochsa. The water was low, but the trip was still fun. We used Three Rivers Rafting company and had a good time with fun and interesting guides. The water is SO clear and deep in spots it’s really unbelievable. I hiked about 1/2mi into Wier Creek Hot springs on 12, but found it too damn HOT. :confused1 It was in a cool spot though. We camped along 12 west of Lolo, MT that night in Wendover NFCG. I wouldn’t recommend the place, but it did the deed.

Sunday we continued over Lolo pass back into Missoula and then burned up the interstate to Lookout Pass on the Idaho/Montana border where we rented bikes and got setup to ride the Route of the Hiawatha. This is a 17 mile section of abandoned Milwaukee Road railroad bed which includes 8 tunnels and numerous trestles. It can be run in both directions, but the preferred way is to start at the top and have the shuttle bus bring you back from the bottom. It’s a 2 percent grade. After biking, we drove back to Pullman to drop my son back at his place via Coeur d’ Alene and 95 south. We then turned north and took 195 up to Spokane where we finally got a motel.

On Monday we returned to Missoula via 90/135/200 along the Clark Fork and the Flathead rivers. Our plane was delayed for a bit due to a FS Firefighter plane having a flat tire on the runway, but otherwise it was a nice flight back to Minneapolis. Our drive home from MSP took longer than the flight from Missoula! Jeff

what you didn't get to half the recommended stuff in this thread!! Sounds like you got enough in and had a good time.

Jeff, thanks for posting that info up! I'll be sure to check some of those areas when i head out shortly.

Have a link to a photo album of your time in the area?

No photo album yet. I've got to do that, but it takes so damn much time and effort! I've been using shutterfly, but I wonder if there is a better place? One that allows a person to link to the photo's so I can post some of them here? Jeff