Mountain Camping in Montana

Carmen, Idaho
Morgan Bar BLM
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Florence, Montana
Chief Looking Glass FW


Missoula was where we were headed but we decided to break up the drive a bit more.  We were excited to stay at some BLM land on the Salmon River just outside of Carmen, Idaho for a few days.  More breathtaking scenery.

As I drive past the mountains I think how I just want to breathe them in.  So I don't forget them.  I know soon we'll be back into Oregon heading south and there will be a lot more flatter lands until we get back to Placerville for the holiday months.

It's mid-week and we need good internet for Steve to work.  I was very hopeful this area would work as it is right out of town and I've had great signal.  As soon as we make the curve around Tower Rock and pull into the campground we are a bit bummed as we watch our bars disappear quickly. For a moment we forget about the bars when we see how nice the park is.  Very small, maybe 5 spots on the river.

We take one of the huge pull-throughs and test our Verizon with the booster.  Nada.  Bummer.

The only other person across from us.

Lone fisherman.

I love how Idaho puts these signs up all along the Lewis and Cark route.

I did a bit more searching and found another BLM site on the other side of the river on Campendium.  The last people there reported 4 bars of LTE.  Once we got there we were so surprised to see we did indeed have great LTE, 5 bars!  Being across the river instead of around the mountain gave us a straight line of site of the antenna.  Perfect.  Another small campground on the river with only 2 other there.  We chose the best site, #4, right on the river with gorgeous trees in bright color all around us.

Morgan Bar BLM has no hookups like Tower Rock and both are $5 a night.  Our site was a deep back in.

There are nice firepits here too so we enjoyed more fires before it gets too cold out to sit by one.

I had a ball hiking along the river taking in all the color, water, mountains and reflections.

Found a bird's nest that had fallen on the ground.

Hurley had a ball because he could run all over.  Funny how he stays out of the river now.  So cold.

The reds were stunning against the dark mountains in the background under the stormy skies.

Our last night we went out to a brewery in town and decided to split a German sausage with red cabbage, mashed potatoes and sauerkraut.

 

Hello Montana!!

When we drove up to Missoula through many cute western towns.

Good thing my friend, Tina, warned us about the speed traps.  The speed limits changed drastically and quickly.

Chief Looking Glass campground is run by the department of Fish and Game/BLM and has fishing access at the river.  Dry camping is $18.  Many of these small towns have free dump and fresh water so we had no problems with so much dry camping.  Propane is everywhere, not that expensive and the temps are still not bad.  50s in the day, 30s at night.  Lot's of sunshine!

 

 

 

Grazing Buffalo

It's only 20 miles to Missoula and we have some fun things planned over the next few days.  This will be as far north as we get before we head towards Joseph, Oregon and then eventually back home.