Steak at Ted's and Fishing in Helena - MT

Helena, Montana
Riverside Bur of Rec



We had planned to stop for dinner in Bozeman on our way to Helena after we left North Yellowstone.  Our intended stop was Ted's Montana Grill.  We were all craving a good steak!

Since my brother and I both have long rigs I had to find a place in a busy downtown where we could both park.  Luckily there was a small park with wide streets around it just a few blocks away.  It worked perfectly!

 

 A short walk and we were there.

There is a hotel attached with a beautiful entry and lounge. We had a great dinner and then were off to Helena. It was less than a 2 hour drive and we should arrive just before dark.  We have camped at this lake before so we knew it would be no problem getting in to our reserved sites.

Here we are at Riverside Campground on Canyon Ferry Reserervoir run by the Bureau of Reclamation.  It's $15 with no utilities at the site.  There is a place to fill with water.  No dump station but you can dump in town.

We got our favorite spot, #20.  Our friends, Lee and Trace, had told us about this place a few years back and we were happy to be here again.

The view looking toward the dam.

And looking downstream.

 

 

My brother and I took a drive to check out the tiny community of York which is about 10 miles from the campground. Only a handful of people live there fulltime.  There is a post office, a restaurant and a couple small buildings.  We were told the The Friendly York Bar makes a mean burger.

It looked great and we would come back with our spouses for dinner.

It was a pretty drive and we were looking for some streams to fish.

 

We found some old flumes leading from the creek.

 They were very small streams and of course my brother hooked a few almost before I could get out of the truck!

This one was a decent size for such a small stream.

Cute cabin right on the river that I could live in!

 

The next day we drove up a decent dirt road that went up into the miles.  The stream up here was hard to get to and small but we found a few holes to try out.

Not to mention that there wasn't much room to park the beast so that others could get by.  Only saw a couple of other trucks up here anyway.

It was funny that in the spots that we were sure there would be some in the deep pools we didn't get any and in other spots that we doubted there would be any, we caught some decent ones.

Pretty Rainbow Trout.

One spot I hiked back to get to the water I came across this sign.  It was near the river by a backcountry camping area.  Maybe this was Mike's favorite spot?

Again, who'd think you could catch anything here?  But of course, my brother did!

A couple of nice Brook Trout this time.

 

 

On one of our lasts days the Two Steves and I took the Ranger up a small ATV trail.  It took us way up above the lake.  I drove.  With my brother egging me on to go faster, I did!  It was crazy dusty up here.  After a couple of hours none of us could take the dust so we headed back down to York for a Bloody Mary before dinner.

It was a gorgeous drive but we only saw a couple of deer, nothing else.

I slapped my pants and this is how crazy dusty it was!

Inside the York Bar is the typical room covered in dollar bills everywhere!

After a clean up and dinner we enjoyed a sunset on our last evening.

 

 Next Up, the old, cute mining town of Anaconda.