Welcome to Montana Already
5 months ago when people asked us where we were going, we told them that we were going to drive north until we hit the US 2, “The Great Northern” and then turn right. We finally turned right at noon July 3rd, after 94 days on the road. (OK, it ended up being left because we were coming back from the Canadian border) At one time we thought we would drive “The Great Northern” all the way to Wisconsin before dropping south but there isn’t much on the US 2 so we changed our plan.
We spent 42 of those days of driving in circles seeing the scenery of Idaho. Idaho looks nothing like I have pictured in my head, I always expected pine tree filled vistas, I am still surprised at how few trees there are. We saw (keeping in mind we never really went out into the Boise Valley) mostly grasslands, even on the sides of the bizarrely steep, tall mountains, just grass, with the exception of the Northwest Passage – Clearwater River highway, US 12, we really didn’t see many trees until we got into the panhandle at the top. It is all beautiful just not really what I expected.
We stopped at this Montana border bar at near 1PM and everybody was scurrying around and we realized that it was July 4th weekend, if it had of been later I mighta asked if we could spend the night in their parking lot, they were planning a big bash!
As it turned out we spent our first night in Montana, outside Libby, where we had not so good luck finding a nice spot to camp but we did enjoy the nice folks we met. 
Camp song: “Get Rhythm – Joaquin Phoenix”
Cost: $ Free
Phone T-Mobile: Zero
Internet Verizon: 1 bar 3G
Noise: Not too noisy, some cars, but quiet at night
Restrooms: No
Electric: No
Water: No
Dump: No
Trash: Pack it in Pack it out
Location: N48.419203°, W115.550830°
Elevation: 2300 feet
National Forest land north of Libby Mt.
Nights Stayed: July 3rd 2014
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HEY!! you made it to Montana. FINALLY! so when will you be home (wherever home is)? just kidding. so ya were gunna travel across the top of the US all the way eastward across boring windswept plains? yer tired of emptiness? stick to the mountains and trees. thinking of heading to Yellowstone? ya just gotta see it since yer in the neighborhood. ITS BEAUTIFUL!! im glad i had the chance to go there and see it; an experience ya will never forget. and lots of wild animals. of course, thats in Wyoming. ya gotta see Montana first. did you go across the “Swinging Bridge?” as in the above photo? i am eagerly awaiting each installment of yer travels. take care.
Home is where ever we are, it is awesome, it always makes the trip so short.
We too eagerly await what each day brings, or try, we don’t have the route set in stone yet, but no plans to do Yellowstone this year, but next year is another story???
Yeah I was always a bit jealous of that NP trip you took back in the day.
when i took that NP tour trip with John we missed a lot. we stopped at a few overnight and went on hikes and stuff, and yet some we just stopped at Visitor’s Centers to get postcards and decals and mainly just flew thru them getting to next destination. i didnt even know about Glen Canyon NP and all it’s beauties. thats just northeast of Arches (where we spent 2 nights). from there we jammed north to Teton NP for a night and then 3 nights in Yellowstone. oh well. yer gonna have fun wherever you go. i hope you winter out down south, maybe spend some time in KRV?