Tonight is our first night at the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge. We have a beautiful and isolated camping spot, with miles of potential hiking in each direction.
Getting there is half the fun….or so the old saying goes. Maybe it is more like one tenth the fun. Still fun, but not half of it by any measure.
We left our Rest Area “camping” spot this morning and headed east. On our way we saw some parts of America we did not know existed.
Major Realization: Eastern Montana is HUGE! It is vast, and beautiful. We have driven almost all of the way from southern to northern California, and all of the way across Texas, but neither of those states felt the vast as does Montana. For one thing, not to insult our Texas friends (if we ever make any), but driving across Texas isn’t particularly beautiful. In fact, much of it is downright not beautiful.
And driving south to north through California has some lovely spots, but mostly it is interstates or busy federal or state highways.
But Montana feels different. The road went for miles between anything resembling a farm or a town. And many of the towns were just spots on the road. At times we said something like: "Was that X-town we just went through?" And miles between gas stations. And, interestingly, less cell reception in this part of the country than in the desert regions we have camped in. Even in Death Valley you can occasionally (well, maybe rarely) get a signal.
For example, one town we went by was Moccasin, Montana.. From the highway one could see a large abandoned building among two dozen or so abandoned, and old, buildings. It looked like a ghost town from a 1950s western. So we had to turn off to see it.
Here is the building. It had no signs. Can’t tell what it used to be. A hospital? A school?
And the rest of the town looked borderline deserted. Googling it we found it has about 125 inhabitants, but they must live in two houses, because that is about all we saw.
I don't know what people who live there do for a living, unless they had a business where they sold Keep Out signs.
And in between these small settlements was miles and miles of grasslands. Beautiful. Sometimes there were cattle, sometimes some farming, and often just natural grass and rugged terrain.
Our destination was a town called Jordan, Montana. One gas station, with prices that were surprisingly low considering there weren’t any towns within miles. We were told there was also a grocery store: “Turn left at the blinking light.”
From Jordan we drove 25 miles on a bumpy gravel road into the refuge, only to realize that we made a mistake and would have to drive the same 25 miles back. Most of the refuge allows off road camping, but after about 21 of the 25 miles we came upon a sign saying that off road camping wasn’t allowed there. Would have been nice to know that earlier. At the end of the road was a Montana State Park, Hell Creek Recreation Area and State Park, along a bank of the Fort Peck Reservoir. There were about a dozen campers there, which immediately made it obvious we were in the wrong place. Then we saw the prices for camping there, and were further convinced.
We drove out, and back along the road, searching for some type of spot where it was legal to camp. We found something that looked possible, but it just didn’t feel right. Outside of the refuge are dozens of small areas that, according to our maps, were BLM or private. One issue about public lands is that they are often not well marked, and according to our maps our potential spot was on the edge of BLM/public land. We thought we could “get away” with it, if asked, but that’s no fun. We also wanted to find a camping sot where we knew we could comfortably settle in for a few days. This one didn't feel that way.
We have learned, from several exoeriences, that if for some reason a camping spot doesn’t “feel right,” that we should move on. We will find something better, and always seem to. We have learned to trust those feelings.
So, we drove back the 25 miles, then drove 45 miles further down the road to another entrance into the recreation area. And struck campsite gold. Found a great spot. Beautiful in all directions, isolated, and hiking possibilities from our camper in every direction. Tomorrow we take our first hike.
We have driven 1000 miles from home for this. It was worth it.
Our rule of thumb was valid once again: if a camping spot doesn’t feel “just right,” then move on until one does. The land, our country, is so vast that there will always be a place that does feel right.
Can you see the our camper far in the distance? (On the right)
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