Our Road Trips

5/28/14

We wanted to see a little more of western Montana before we make our move to Idaho, so we decided to delay our move by one day and make one more of our scenic road trips. We would have cell service at several places so if need be, we could be in contact with the world. So we got an early start and headed east from MT 83 on MT 200. Before the day is over, we will have crossed the Continental Divide 4 times, made a complete circle around Phillipsburg and driven 412 miles. What a beautiful drive it was!! Barbara has full understanding why I was so adamant about seeing Montana, especially from Bozeman west. We have crossed the Continental Divide at least 10 times in the last 25 days, filled up our National Park Passport book in this section, been in 3 different Montana State Parks, visited with a bunch of our relatives we do not see often enough and have driven countless miles. It has been a blast!

We drove east on MT 200 to 279 south, which went up and over the CD and met up with I-15 just north of Helena, From there, we went south on I-15 to I-90 at Butte, where you cross the CD again, west on I-90 to 569 south just west of Anaconda, up and over the CD to 43 west along the Big Hole River to the town of Wisdom. 43 turns east at Wisdom and passes by the Big Hole Battlefield site, so we stopped by for another example of how the US Army treated the Native Americans (this time the Nez Perce tribe) so badly...see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nez_Perce_War for details. This was the same people who had befriended the Lewis & Clark expedition and by several accounts saved many lives of the parties in that expedition.

We then proceeded west to US 93, where the Continental Divide crosses right at the intersection of Idaho, Montana, US 93 and MT 43...quite a spot. Then we went north to Missoula on US 93, with the Bitterroot Mountains on the west side and the Bitterroot River on the east side, it is a beautiful ride. On our way through Missoula, we find some dinner to go and head back to the camper, 45 miles east on MT 200 along the Blackfoot River. All the roads follow rivers & streams, which makes them so scenic...the streams are all raging this time of year from the snow melting and are pretty awesome to ride next to. We arrive back at the camper just at dusk, eat some dinner and move to get some sleep...another exciting day awaits.

Steve & Barb Larson