Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area to Lewis and Clark National Forest
While last night’s campsite was an astonishing bust in looks, location, and amenities it turns out it had several things going for it: it was free, it was dead quiet (as we were one of only two campers on the “upper level”), and it was dark. Great looking big dipper they got out here. And a special bonus of a neato Massachusetts company’s super cool composting toilets that had zero smell.
Here we created a plan for the rest of our trip.
Wednesday night, we’d camp near White Sulpher Springs in the Lewis & Clark National Forest. Then we would bop back down to Bozeman to visit with friends of Scott, then bop back up to our campsite. Having our campsite north of Bozeman gets us closer to our goal of getting to Glacier National Park on Thursday night.
After not one, not two, but three whole nights in Glacier, we would stop somewhere between Glacier and Yellowstone to camp, and then three nights in Yellowstone, followed by three nights in Grand Teton, and topped off by some place to be named later close to Denver, for our flight back the next day.
So we rose in the morning, rather refreshed after such a quiet night’s sleep (though Scott did awake to the sound of a hoofed animal awkwardly running across the road from our campsite and snorting . . . he figured it was a bighorn sheep but he has no proof), broke camp in possible record time, and headed off to the Flying J in Billings to try out their showers. They have a fine system, and while the initial price quoted for the shower was rather alarming ($11.50!), it turns out that includes a refundable $5 towel deposit, and they let us both in with no questions except: do you want more towels?
Off we went to the Billings Public Library. Less than impressive building, but the staff was nice and they had free wi-fi. Sort of. Turns out it’s new, and the staff can’t fix it when it doesn’t work right. So we finally ditched them and went to a City Brew a few blocks away. There we got to plug the power right into the wall and got busy. We checked email and responded to Bella who told us she was doing well, and started ordering camp sites. We locked up one site for one day in Glacier. We’ll either move to an allegedly better campground within Glacier after that or just renew where we are. We have a semi-decent site locked in for three days in Yellowstone, not at one of the best campgrounds, but we figure of all the places we might end up with no place to stay, Yellowstone might be it. Finally, we found out we can’t reserve in Grand Teton but we’ve identified campgrounds we would want. Blogger wasn’t working so we couldn’t update the blog. But getting all that work done, and connected to the wall!, out of gratitude Amy ordered a “tall spiced cider” and promptly burned her tongue.
After all that hard work we needed to fuel up so off we went to Stella’s – recommended by Ryan, Roadfood.com, and Fodor’s. It did not disappoint. Scott started out with a white caramel roll, and then a huge pancake, one egg, and half a pig. Seriously, it was a big piece of ham. And good ham it was! (Yes, you read that right. Scott made it all the way to Stella’s and did not order the monster cinnamon roll.) Amy had Stella’s Surprise, scrambled egg and cheese over hashbrowns with eggs, pepper, and ham. The salsa and sour cream didn’t add much, but they were there if you wanted ‘em.
From Stella’s (which has moved . . . we’ve gotta tell Roadfood) we made for our campsite. We took I-90 West to Route 89 North near Livingston. Route 89 is one of those long straight two-lane roads with a speed limit of 70 that are prevalent throughout Montana. Despite making good time we were running late from our stated ETA of 5:30-6ish to see Scott’s friends in Bozeman. We found the campground easily despite its rather remote location. (Formula to avoid car noise at night: find a small town with nothing around it for 40 miles (say, White Sulpher Springs), drive East 6.3 miles from said town til you hit a dirt access road into a National Forest. Drive 3 miles down that dirt road. Arrive at an 11-site campground with nobody else there.)
We set up camp in record time as we were running late. Back in the car and off to Bozeman. We went back through the extensive construction area along Route 89 before taking 86 just north of Wilsall. With the benefit of hindsight (and a magnifying glass), we can see that Route 86 appears almost imperceptibly squiggly on the Montana state map where 89 is straight. That imperceptible squiggle translated to a hair-raising ride along the Bridger Range. Took longer than we thought and no cell service en route to call Scott’s friends. By the time we all gathered at Sante Fe Red’s, (classic Montana scene: restaurant attached to an Inn. You pass by a casino to get to your table.) it was close to 7 PM. We had a great time but with a near two-hour drive back to our campsite, we couldn’t stay more than an hour and a half or so. We’ll have to swing through Big Sky on our way to Yellowstone to see the house Chris is building by himself.
We decided to take Route 89 back rather than run the squiggle at night. It was a good decision even if we did kill a rabbit. At least it wasn’t one of the deer we spotted within 20 feet of the road. After deer #2, Scott decided there was no reason to rush and slowed down a bit, probably saving the life of a second rabbit, which darted in front of the car a few miles later.
We reached our campsite around 11, or just when the last of the sun was disappearing and the stars were beginning to come out. The stars here are spectacular – provided you are willing to be up and out between 11:30 PM and 3:30 AM, when the temperatures are in the 40s.
Amy went to the car at 4 AM for more clothing and found it covered in frost. We’ll need to find some sort of pad to put down between the air mattress and the tent floor to keep the cold from creeping up. The blanket from the Billings K-Mart has helped immensely but we still need that extra item.
The dirt road into the campground follows a creek as it meanders through meadow and forest. Grasshopper Creek campground hosts 11 sites, most of which adjoin the grounds’ namesake. It is a truly beautiful (hard not to over-use that word around here) area nestled amongst the pine trees of the Lewis & Clark National Forest. We picked a spot slightly removed from the creek but were lulled to sleep by the sound of rushing water. And awakened early, like clockwork, by the 4:15 cacophony of birds.
