Off to Montana in less than a month...

[yellocoyote]

I swore I had a thread here too asking for any known "off the beaten path" type roads in central or western Montana. Guess not.

At any rate, we leave on August 27th after work and are gone for 10 days (through Labor Day). The plan... is that we have no plans. There is no agenda or place that we have to be on any given day.

We leave. We drive. We explore. We hike/bike. We camp. We take pictures. We get lost (but hopefully not too lost). And we come home.

So, my question to you (and others from other forums) is that if you know of areas with decent, scenic travel - unpaved surfaces, please - to let me know a general idea of where they can be found.

I've got 3 so far that look promising:

- Route from Glacier National Park to Kintla Lake via forest/fire service roads
- Missouri Breaks Backcountry Byway
- Beartooth Pass (near Cooke City, MT)

Anyone else know of others that might be of interest? Looking for easy/mild - light moderate trails. We need to make it back on our own.


EDIT: Oh, and I'll be updating the blog that's linked below in my signature while traveling as well.

 

[TruLiberty]

just be careful if you get up into glacier, they might be ready to get some snow storms by then. When i was out there i was just driving the roads out in SW montana...all so beautiful tho. Really is big sky country.

 

[ridenby]

If you get to Missoula HWY12 over to Lolo Hot Springs is a neat ride,blacktop,more scenic than anything,motel at the spring has a pool fed by the spring,food,etc. Not a big place at all.

 

[boebr1]

Tell me if you are coming near Helena MT... I'll point you in the direction of some cool drives... and you can look on the m4x4a.org website to see if one of the local off road clubs is having a trail run while you are here

 

[boebr1]

South of Boulder Mt is the ghost town that I put up a pic of, and the old mile long railroad tunnel with an ice column (melted off now) pic that I put up (still about a foot of water in it. West of Helena between Mc Donald pass and Marysville MT is the area that the pic of mud is from

You must be registered for see images

You must be registered for see images

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and if you want to do a bunch of river crossings... I'll personally guide you here

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this is the tenderfoot river... this area is between white sulpher springs and great falls

 

[boebr1]

There is also an area fairly close to Helena that involves some rock crawling if you are interested. I'm not really familiar with areas beyond my stomping grounds... about a 100 mile radius from helena. lots of lakes, rivers, ghost towns, winding mountain roads without even forest service designations. August can be extremely hot here lately... last august it was regularly around 110-115 degrees in the eastern part of the state during the day (not a lot of mountains) and 95-105 in the western areas. August is also our prime forest fire season. Some of our forests have been heavily ravaged by the bark beetle (aka pine beetle) leaving a lot of hot burning fire fuel standing. So, don't be too surprised if you can't go to some areas you want to just because of forest fires. The high elevation parks won't get as hot, but it will still be so hot and dry you will be wondering if you stepped through a wormhole and popped out in arizona or nevada

 

[yellocoyote]

@boebr1 - PM sent

The last time we went to Montana (summer of '04, I think), we spent most of our week near Glacier NP. We stayed at a resort. It was a ski resort in the winter, and a mountain bike/hike resort in the summer. Was a cool place. We had a day of white-water rafting planned, and other things. But we found that we have more fun stories and fond memories of the times spent exploring and times where we got a little lost. It's that kind of trip that we are attempting to replicate.

We experienced snow during the last week of August as well. Just flurries near the higher elevations of Going To the Sun Rd.... and some when we were in Yellowstone.

 

[boebr1]

on m4x4a.org there are four wheel drive clubs for about 6 different regions of montana, there is one in missoula, maybe one for the northwest area

 

[yellocoyote]

on m4x4a.org there are four wheel drive clubs for about 6 different regions of montana, there is one in missoula, maybe one for the northwest area

I'll check out that site - thanks!

 

[yellocoyote]

Only a few more days left! (partysmile)

Getting a lot of last minute loose ends with the KJ tied up - a bunch in the past couple of days, and a few more in the upcoming few days. The KJ prep list once it's all said and done will consist of:

- new passenger side CV joint/intermediate shaft
- coolant flushed/filled
- transmission flushed/filled/new filters
- tires rotated
- oil changed
- alignment

All other maintenance has been done somewhat recently, and levels on everything are good. I'm hoping that by Wednesday, I can actually start packing gear in the Jeep.

 

[Dave]

Should be an awesome trip YC.

Time is getting short now. Don't forget us while you are having fun. Send pics....

Dave

 

[yellocoyote]

I hope to have occasional internet connection... although, I'm not counting on it.

I found out I can update the blog (link in my signature) by way of text messages. So, even if I can't get on the interwebz, I can still post updates by way of cell phone - when I have signal. I haven't found a way to upload pics to that site yet.