Montana in September

[ElTee]

A friend and I are shipping our bikes to Kalispell in mid-september and plan to ride south through Hamilton, perhaps Skalkaho Pass, then through Dillon and into the west entrance to Yellowstone. I would enjoy hearing from any local riders familiar with the roads...particularly Sweetwater Rd going east from Dillon either on this post or through "my messages." Thanks. / Eltee

[Vstromper]

I have a trip to that area planned for the first week of September. We will loop up to Going to the Sun Hwy from Colorado Springs then work our way back through northern Idaho. Hwy 12 from Lolo into Idaho is supposed to be "don't miss". I'll let you know. Some of the campsites I've tried to reserve are closed to the public because they are being used as firefighter base camps.  

[ElTee]

Hey thanks. I've been following the Montana fires. especially the Seeley Lake fire.
Montanafires.com keeps things current and has been a good resource. Enjoy your
ride./LT

Hey, my bad...forget that link, let me dig around and find the one I've been watching..I'll get back to you.

Here go..

http://travel.state.mt.us/

This doesn't have all the pics I had seen before, but I can't find that one...sorry

[Guy]

After Labor Day, alot of Yellowstone closes up shop. It's harder to find open stores, but the crowds are gone. Careful, snow is not unheard of in Sept. I was passing thru Yellowstone (in my pick-up) in mid-Oct, and got 8 inches of snow. If you want to do Beartooth Pass, it is likely you will encounter snow.

[mtrider16]

ElTee, Glad you want to come back after your trip through the area.  There certianly are less tourists in September, and yes, you can sometimes see snow.  If you keep a weather eye out, you should be okay.  Bring some warm clothes, but also some clothes for hot weather, as the temperatures can vary considerably.

Well ElTee, I think you need to be posting on ADVrider.  Remember that I'm from the east side of the state, but while I was in college in Bozeman, I worked at a ranch that was south of the Ruby reservoir one summer.  At that time, 1991, it was gravel from the south end of the reservoir all the way to Monida.  I saw the Sweetwater road on MapSource, and I remember folks at the ranch talking about a gravel road to Dillion, and I bet you found it.

Skalkaho Pass has several reports in ADVrider, and from them I would be willing to drive the VFR over it, but it is still a gravel road.

My Old Report

A Skalkaho Report

This is a map of my route June 15th.


Did you want to ride Lolo Pass (Hwy 12 west of Missoula)?  Hwy 1 from Drummond, to Phillipsberg, to Anaconda is supposed to be nice, you can take the cut from Anaconda down to the Big Hole area and Jackson, MT.  I don't recomment Hwy 93 from Missoula to Darby, as it has some fairly heavy traffic.

Anyway, glad to discuss ideas with you anytime.  BTW, I'm planning to ride to GNP over Labor Day.

David

[ElTee]

Hey David, thanks for the get back.

Also, thank you for the links...I started the Adv Rider one, but flipped back here to reply to you when I couldn't immediately locate Mink, MT...via either Rand or Google. I'll find it though.

Our route is a little wierd. As in TRLT, I'm taking MT#83 down from Big Fork and then east on 200, but only to 141. From there, it's 271 through Helmville and over I-90 onto MT#1...which also shows some places as #10. This road takes us over the Skalkaho Pass and into Grantsville. South on US-93 only as far as MT#43, then east to Wisdom then 278 to Dillon....that town has a great website

Here it gets interesting. Sweetwater Rd. runs east out of Dillon. I spoke to the Kawasaki dealer about the road ( it's gravel ) and think I'll try to enlist some local riders to take us across to US-278 so we can enter Yellowstone from the west. There are lots of intersections back up in the hills and probably not a lot of road signs...I may be posting from somewhere up in the Gravelly Range this time next year if I'm not careful.

We'll miss you in Glacier by about 2 weeks, but I'm sure you'll do fine without us. That's one awsome place.

Enjoy and be well,

LT

[mtrider16]

Two questions,

Hwy 41, goes from Dillon to Twin Bridges and Hwy 287.  Then you can go to Alder, Nevada City, Virginia City to Ennis.  From Ennis you can go right down 287 to West Yellowstone.  Was there a reason you were taking Sweetwater Road to Ruby Reservoir and 287?  (Ruby Reservoir to Alder is paved)

Did you see Hwy 274 from Anaconda to Fishtrap (also called 569)?

I'm sure you'll enjoy your route either way, I'm just curious if you had some specific sites you were trying to see.

Mink    I have Mapsource United States Topo from Garmin.  Its zoomed to 1 mile.  From Lindsey on Hwy 200 (between Circle and Glendive) go north 7 miles and you come to a Tee.  This is where Deer Creek Church is at.  Go west 2 miles, north 1 mile, and west 2 miles, and that is the point I took the picture.  On the topo map, it looks like the site might be 1/4 mile off the road there.

David

[ElTee]

Naw nothing in particular...just thought a romp through the woods would purge us of the proximity to I-15. I can see crossing I-90 at Drummond then taking 1 ( or 10A) down to Anaconda then Fishtrap....more I think of navigating dirt roads, the more appeal that has...we'll see.

Yea good old Mapsource. I've got that on the laptop and I'm fooling around here at my desk. I liked your Adv Rider post...particularly the gray wet riding...that just inserts another layer of isolation / insulation as the little bit of traffic thins further.

[mtrider16]

Good luck on the routing.  Should be a fun trip, like I said.

Was in Billings with Dad for some surgery he had scheduled.  I'm wondering if he didn't have a reaction to some of the pre-op tests as he had a seizure, and the surgery was canceled.    He's okay and back here at my place tonight.

David

[Beembob1]

Gee ElTee, hear many campgrounds will be closed for your trip. Whtcha gunna do?
RT AKA Beembob1