We got Skunked – but, it turns out, not in a bad way September 4, 2020

We knew better.  It was Friday morning when we left the campground at Flathead Lake.  We had no reservations.  Add to that it is the Labor Day Weekend.  Duh.  We knew  better BUT we decided to take a chance.  Well the outcome of the chance taking here was okay but only after a stressful 2 hours.  We traveled down the west side of the Hungry Horse Reservoir and poked our noses into several campgrounds – FULL! 


Here is a picture of another big-ass dam -- Hungry Horse.




 

Took a break and a pee stop at the A&W in Big Fork.  Because of COVID we weren’t allowed inside so we parked our rig and got in line on foot  behind the cars in the drive thru.  Yes, we were walking thru!!  One guy let us go in front because he said “he wouldn’t let his parents stand outside waiting.”  Thank you sir!!  While we were waiting we met this couple that reminded me so much of Richard Bader and his wife Pat whom I met last year on the Camino.  This couple were missionaries to Guatemala and they are currently living out of their motor home in the USA traveling and doing virtual mission – I think that means online.  They were so interesting.

 

So anyways, we abandoned our plan to camp at the lovely reservoir and headed down towards Missoula where there appeared to be plenty of USFS campgrounds.  Our luck was no better here.  At one spot a fella (obviously not a campground host) came out and wanted to know what we wanted, like it was his campground.  By the time we got to the last campground we were so discouraged.  We asked the last host, a man who looked older than Moses, if the campground was full and he said yes but that if we headed over to Owl Creek, he had just been there and there were some empty spaces.  So we found our way over to the Packer campground where, if we didn’t mind horses, we could camp for free!! 




 

Here in Owl Creek campground there are packers and their horses.  There is also room for Ceilidh to be off the leash.  Super big space and tomorrow we will investigate options because after the holiday, I really want to come back to this area and camp.  There are so many lakes with beautiful campsites. 

 

Here is a picture of the little cabin you can rent here.




 

Here is a picture of our campsite




 

Lesson learned.  Don’t EVER count on finding a campsite after Thursday, anywhere, without a reservation.  That is, if you don’t want a stressful journey.

 

 

 

  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Been a quiet two days -- August 29, 2020

Image
Back in this civilized camp I have spent 2 days reading, swimming and hiking.  We went to town (Eureka, MT) yesterday for lunch and had a really good and huge cobb salad for $11.  The town kind of reminded me of Virginia City.  I can't exactly explain why but it was set up to take advantage of the tourist trade in the old downtown.  I asked one of the merchants there how business was and she said "not so good."   Before we hit Eureka, we drove down to Rexford which is merely a post office, a bar/restaurant and few trailer parks.  There was, however, a big field where Russ could through the frisbee to Ceilidh.  As we turned around to leave, these critters greeted us: After lunch in Eureka we explored the history a bit.  This place has a pretty good set up.  All of their old buildings are set in the same place.  Fortunately there was a lot of history to see outside for, alas, the museum itself was closed.  COVID.  Here's som...
Read more

Windy, Windy Night!! Glad we are still standing.

Image
Wednesday, February 24, 2012.  We broke camp at Walker Lake and continued our journey south towards Death Valley.  A totally different route, we passed through Beatty, Nevada and over the summit into the Valley.  We were totally surprised at the accommodations that have been made for the masses that want to visit and stay in Death Valley.  Of course there are the old standby campgrounds but they need to be reserved 6 months in advance and therefore are impossible to secure.  Now, however, the park has opened up a huge “parking lot” sort of facility that allows campers – RV’s, Trailers and Tents – to camp in the gravel.  This sounds unattractive but it really isn’t.  The spots are really wide and the fact that lots of us can stay in the valley now more than makes up for the non-campground feel.  You still get the incredible vistas and dark sky that Death Valley is known for.  We (because we are old and have a senior pass) only had to pay $7 a...
Read more

Missed a day -- sorry. Gone from Clear to Smoky September 13, 2020

Image
Yes, well yesterday I was able to kayak twice.  Once in the morning and once at night.  And look at how clear it was. Today, the smoke settled into Montana like this I fear it is going to be like this for the rest of our journey which, of course, makes me less sad to have it end. The last two days have been full.  Saturday we visited Philipsburg, MT which is the site of another ghost town called Granite.  This one has not been tended to as carefully as Garnet as you can see from the pictures but it has a lot more stuff in it including the stamping mill.  Most of the photos show what is left of each building and most of that is masonry and granite.  The boards that formed the homes or offices on top of the rock foundations have either just collapsed and  been left to lay where they fell or are gone altogether. Here is a picture of the only bank in Granite.  I assume that this is just the vault because it was only big enough for money -- not people....
Read more