My Journey

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

The following morning would be our sixth day without a hot shower. So that got me thinking about a hot spring. An hour to the northwest is Elkhorn Hot Springs. That seemed like a long drive just to get cleaned up, but then I thought, heck, you don't know where you're going so maybe that's where you're going !?! And we were off.....



I must sound like a broken record about how beautiful it is here, but the drive from Dillon to the hot springs is a ten, absolutely amazing. Unfortunately the hot springs were not. Quite lame.....





One large pool, one small pool, both filled with lukewarm water was not what I needed. The one bright spot was the 6” inflow pipe that sent steaming hot water to the two pools. I spent the entire time under that 6” pipe. Afterwards we got some hiking in as there's tons of great winter trails throughout the entire area.....



Parked the rig at a trailhead just below the hot springs, grabbed my book, and called it a day.....

 

[unkamonkey]

As long as you are having a good time with the dogs, you are in fine shape. It looks like you were in some nice places. There is a saying around here "The bigger the rodeo buckle, the smaller the ride" as to your reference to cow persons.

 

[Foy]

Good job Foy.....I've got another one for you but I need to get better pictures.....stranger than the last one I think.....


By all means post it, Jerry. Even though I live 2,500 miles away, southwestern Montana is dear to me and I'm especially delighted to know you have "discovered" Dillon and Elkhorn Hot Springs over in the Grasshopper Valley. I spent 7 weeks mapping all around Dillon in 1978 and have been back on vacation many times since then, so I know where a few of the "bodies are buried".
Hopefully you have ventured just a bit further west/northwest over the Big Hole Divide and laid eyes upon the Big Hole Valley. But be sure to keep it a secret! We don't need all sorts of folks crowding in over there.

I wholeheartedly agree with you about Dillon, MT. It's a first class cowtown and may be one of the more iconic examples remaining in all of the Northern Rockies.

Seriously, if you're still in the area, and if they're still accessible late in the season, the NF campgrounds at Twin Lakes and Miner Lakes are terrific. Miner Lakes is a little easier to get to, and Van Houten CG is easier still. And if Lemhi Pass is still open, ignore the "trailers not recommended" signs (or just take the Jeep over) and enter Idaho at Lemhi Pass, just like Lewis & Clark did in 1805. One reward for having done so is Sharkey's Hot Spring part way down the road towards Salmon, ID below the pass (and on the much easier route to descend--NOT the Agency Creek Rd route). Sharkey's is a nicely done non-commercial facility built and maintained by the BLM, and its waters are in the 102-104 degree range. It has nice bathrooms and changing rooms and is wide open to the skies, which are most often sunny.

Foy

 

[chet6.7]

That is beautiful country. I envy your ability to be free enough to not have a destination.

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

Unkamonkey.....never heard that before.....

Chet.....it's kind of nice but you know there's always the other side of the coin. Every morning I wake up with a cup of coffee and a road atlas thinking where next. I don't know.....

Foy.....Thanks for the tips.....

To access the hot springs, you need to turn onto the National Forest Scenic Byway, something I'd never heard of before. There's this large information board right at the intersection of the Byway and the highway. Looking at that sign, the Coolidge Ghost Town Historic Site caught my eye. And that's where we headed on our next day of exploring Montana.....



Now I've never been to a ghost town and can't really say that I've ever wanted to visit one either. Anyhow, I unhooked the Jeep and we headed north on the scenic byway. It's approximately five miles off the road, driving up a snowy, icy forest service road. Then a one mile hike to the actual ghost town. It was interesting and I tried to imagine what a remote life like this would have been like. People were really tough back in the day. Again, anyhow, here's some of what we saw that day.....











Now then, at this point and time, we began to think about how tired we were of being cold, so we retreated to the camper, hooked up the Jeep, and descended down the mountain back to our spot along the Beaverhead River just outside of Dillon. We finished the day up with a hike into the foothills to watch one more spectacular Montana sunset.....









And one more from Leaving Before the Rain Comes by Alexandra Fuller

.....what life had taught me is that where we come from is a point - not the starting point, not the defining point - just a point. It's where we are that really counts.

 

[parkkitchings]

Jerry....glad to see you're back in a camper and on the road again. Safe travels.

Park

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

It feels really good Park. Thanks.....

OK Foy.....check out these pictures and tell me what you know about this one (assuming you're still following of course). It's in Dillon, Montana....



The following morning I went into town to see if there were any opportunities to kayak on the Beaverhead River. I met a guy that told me where to put it in and where to take out. Turns out that the take out spot had a few free campsites along the river so we spent the afternoon floating down the Beaverhead River and nabbed one of the spots.....









The plan for the evening was a huge campfire but the the weather didn't much cooperate as the winds really picked up so it was another night in the camper. We had a group of hunters camped near us.....yep, it's that time again.....



Since we'd collected so much wood the night before, we decided that we needed a morning campfire.....



After a nice morning around the campfire, another front came through and once again we retreated to the camper spending a second night here.....

 

[chet6.7]

The people that built those old buildings had to be tough to survive,thanks for the pictures.

“If you don't know where you're going, you'll end up someplace else.”
― Yogi Berra

 

[Foy]

Never heard of Old Pitt

Jerry,
I recognized the name of Joe Womack. The Womacks ran an office supply store in Dillon and while at mapping school there at Southwest Montana College in 1978, we'd buy odds and ends needed for drafting maps there. The Womacks are known for their newsletter "Dillonite Daily" now available online.

But I'd never heard the story of Old Pitt. I cheated and looked it up on Google. Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction!

Glad to see you enjoying "my" little corner of the world!

Foy

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

So Chet.....as you've probably noticed, I love a good quote. Thanks.....

Foy.....it came up on Google Maps and I have no idea why I wanted to check it out. Nobody in town that I spoke with knew where or what it was....

So it's been kinda of a crazy few days since my last post. While I was planning this trip early on, I had several friends ask to join me. The guy I chose had recently lost his job and health insurance, and had been in an accident causing him to lose several of his teeth and also had several fractures in the face. We devised a plan where he could travel to Mexico and get the assistance he needed much cheaper than here in the states. Unfortunately his health deteriorated each day, so I returned him home on Friday. Now it's just me and the dogs again.....

We spent one night in Bozeman, then the second night was spent close to Three Forks, Montana, along the Madison River. Tons of walking trails made it a perfect spot to hang out.....



And some scenery from our walks along the Madison River.....









Soft colors of the evening sky.....



Posted on a bench along one of the paved trails. Of course it brought back waves of emotion from my recent lose of Montana, my best friend.....



Last night we returned to our campsite south of Dillon, Montana, along the Beaverhead River, at the base of Rattlesnake Rocks.....

 

[Pacific Northwest yetti]

Jerry,

Continued thanks for taking us along on your adventures. Im at work in between mine, its a nice break and a great way to add places to my list. Safe and happy Trails!

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

Thanks Yeti.....I appreciate the positive feedback.....

Thanks Manny92.....

And so it was finally time to leave Montana. I kind of surprised myself how long that actually took. We were back on the interstate, driving south into Idaho.....



Once we reached Dubious, Idaho, we left the interstate and headed west with Craters of the Moon National Monument being our goal for the day.....



I knew nothing about the place prior to our arrival.....just another spot on my road atlas that I noticed. The plan was to spend a night, check things out, and then continue west. But I found a nearly empty campground that only cost me $4 per night. And it turned out to be a great spot to get in some hiking and just relaxing.....



We had some real nice sunsets to finish the day.....





Up the following morning and I quickly decided I'd stay another night. Damn near had the place to myself. We spent the day hiking. It's a pretty barren place but I think it's that solitude and calmness that makes it special....





Didn't see much in the way of wildlife but this little guy somehow got into the Jeep and ate his way through 2 bags of dog food. He had no fear of me but Tanner set him straight.....

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

The following day I decided that I’d need to stay a third night to finish hiking all the trails. I started the day at the visitors center watching both of the park produced films. Like I said, I damn near had the place to myself. I was the only one there.....



Afterwards it was back on the trails as well as exploring some of the caves which were formed from the lava flows. Another real nice day.....







We spent the third evening watching one more great Idaho sunset.....









We left the following morning.....

 

[longhorn1]

Jerry, just caught up on the last pages. Glad to see you are back on the road and sharing some great sites. FoY is the Montana wizzard. Got a nice shower at the Dillon YMCA and then we went up into Vipond Park in the Pioneer Mountains,any old mines and took the scenic Byway along the Wise River, visted the Nez Pez Battlefield and then up into the Bitterroot Valley before crossing the Sapphire Mountains and Skalkaho Pass to Philipsburg. So many great places to visit. Keep on trucking. jd

 

[unkamonkey]

Anybody that travels with dogs is a good person and my neighbor hasn't figured out that the only reason I visit is to scratch the dogs.