One Smoky Day in Montana

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28 August, 2017



We drove north into Montana, stopping at the visitor center at Hardin. The woman there told us the highway department recommended those pulling campers north use Hwy 3 to avoid steep climbs and 12% descents. That made sense to us, so at Billings we turned north on Hwy 3.

After about 90 miles, which only took us about a third of the way up the state, we'd had enough of the smoke. There are wildfires burning in the western part of Montana and the smoke was getting heavier, blurring the views of the mountains. We knew it would get worse the closer we got to the fire areas, which were west of Glacier NP. At that point we gave up on Glacier and turned south, deciding instead to go to Yellowstone NP.

We came south from Livingston to Pine Creek campground in the Custer National Forest. It's a beautiful spot high up a road through a cattle ranch, complete with cattle in the road. What fabulous views of the mountains we had. And all for just $7.50/night.

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Photos

Montana
Smoke screen

Montana
Too smoky to see the mountains

Montana
Too smoky

Pine Creek CG
Not a bad spot for $7.50/night

Pine Creek
One of our visitors

Pine Creek
View from the road from the campground

Pine Creek
Signs were posted: "Watch for cows in the road." I guess she read the signs.

Comments

[Gena Hixson]

Howdy
Glad to see you back on the road. Sorry about all the smoke. We've been having tons of rain, but all is well. Keep up the blog, we love hearing from you----gena