Foy
Resident Geologist
Gents and ladies,
My bride of 36 years and I are entering the "advanced daydreaming" stage of planning a trip back to the Montana-Idaho border area about which we are smitten. We've been visiting the Big Hole, Rock Creek, Dillon and environs together since driving there during July 1980 when on vacation from a work site in Mississippi. We then took her 1977 Honda Civic and we car camped and backpacked in and out of a 2-man backpacking tent, with a Svea stove, one collapseable water container, a Coleman steel-sided 48 qt cooler, and a whole box of Allman Brothers and Little Feat 8-track tapes. My, how things have changed.
We'll be in the venerable '02 Superduty diesel which by then will have > 250,000 miles on the clock, and we'll be towing the new Rockwood A127TH hardside A-frame camper. We gravitated to the trailer mostly so we can drop the house and use the truck to scamper around fishing and hiking while the "base camp" stays put. With that in mind, we plan a few days on Rock Creek, mostly fishing, followed by a few days on the western edge of the Big Hole at Twin Lakes, an incomparable spot on the planet, from which we'll do some horseback riding guided by "Sheriff Dave", a wrangler who served as the Sheriff of Beaverhead County, MT in the 1960s, some hiking, an above timberline drive up to Comet Mountain, and visits to our old favorite haunts at Bannack, Polaris, and Dillon.
The exploration of new areas begins in earnest when we turn southeast for home. We're looking at a 150-175 mile traverse along the Montana side of the MT-ID border from Lost Trail Pass to Red Rock Pass, via the Big Hole, Horse Prairie Creek, Medicine Lodge Creek, Big Sheep Creek, and the entire length of the Centennial Valley. Likely head up to the Divide at Lemhi Pass for a visit to Sharkey's Hot Spring and another side trip to Morrison Lake and the Old Bannack Road. After a "tourist day" at Jackson, WY, we'll proceed to the Nebraska Panhandle at Crawford/Fort Robinson. From there, we'll head to Chadron for visits to the Mari Sandoz High Plains Heritage Center and the Museum of the Fur Trade. Then it's into the Nebraska Sandhills for a 2 or 3 day traverse from northwest to southeast, emerging back to the slab near Grand Island, NE.
We think we have a good handle on the sights to see as far about I-15 near Lima, MT. We're just starting to get familiar with the Centennial Valley and the rest of the corridor. I'm thinking we'll stay south of the Wind River Range leaving Jackson primarily so we can visit Granite Creek Falls hot spring (the natural hot waterfall spring, not the developed pools). We'd be interested in any suggestions from Lima, MT across the Centennial Valley to Henry's Lake, ID, thence south to Teton Pass just west of Jackson. We might cut the US 191/WY-28 corner above Farson, WY if we can find a good graded gravel route to WY-28 and South Pass. Likewise, we're interested in the high desert between Muddy Gap on US 287 and Casper, either north or south of Pathfinder Reservoir. We'll be headed east from Douglas, WY to reach Crawford, NE on US 20.
So, anybody with ideas about things to see or places to camp all the way across central Wyoming and in the Nebraska Sandhills, chime in. It's all possible at this point.
Foy
My bride of 36 years and I are entering the "advanced daydreaming" stage of planning a trip back to the Montana-Idaho border area about which we are smitten. We've been visiting the Big Hole, Rock Creek, Dillon and environs together since driving there during July 1980 when on vacation from a work site in Mississippi. We then took her 1977 Honda Civic and we car camped and backpacked in and out of a 2-man backpacking tent, with a Svea stove, one collapseable water container, a Coleman steel-sided 48 qt cooler, and a whole box of Allman Brothers and Little Feat 8-track tapes. My, how things have changed.
We'll be in the venerable '02 Superduty diesel which by then will have > 250,000 miles on the clock, and we'll be towing the new Rockwood A127TH hardside A-frame camper. We gravitated to the trailer mostly so we can drop the house and use the truck to scamper around fishing and hiking while the "base camp" stays put. With that in mind, we plan a few days on Rock Creek, mostly fishing, followed by a few days on the western edge of the Big Hole at Twin Lakes, an incomparable spot on the planet, from which we'll do some horseback riding guided by "Sheriff Dave", a wrangler who served as the Sheriff of Beaverhead County, MT in the 1960s, some hiking, an above timberline drive up to Comet Mountain, and visits to our old favorite haunts at Bannack, Polaris, and Dillon.
The exploration of new areas begins in earnest when we turn southeast for home. We're looking at a 150-175 mile traverse along the Montana side of the MT-ID border from Lost Trail Pass to Red Rock Pass, via the Big Hole, Horse Prairie Creek, Medicine Lodge Creek, Big Sheep Creek, and the entire length of the Centennial Valley. Likely head up to the Divide at Lemhi Pass for a visit to Sharkey's Hot Spring and another side trip to Morrison Lake and the Old Bannack Road. After a "tourist day" at Jackson, WY, we'll proceed to the Nebraska Panhandle at Crawford/Fort Robinson. From there, we'll head to Chadron for visits to the Mari Sandoz High Plains Heritage Center and the Museum of the Fur Trade. Then it's into the Nebraska Sandhills for a 2 or 3 day traverse from northwest to southeast, emerging back to the slab near Grand Island, NE.
We think we have a good handle on the sights to see as far about I-15 near Lima, MT. We're just starting to get familiar with the Centennial Valley and the rest of the corridor. I'm thinking we'll stay south of the Wind River Range leaving Jackson primarily so we can visit Granite Creek Falls hot spring (the natural hot waterfall spring, not the developed pools). We'd be interested in any suggestions from Lima, MT across the Centennial Valley to Henry's Lake, ID, thence south to Teton Pass just west of Jackson. We might cut the US 191/WY-28 corner above Farson, WY if we can find a good graded gravel route to WY-28 and South Pass. Likewise, we're interested in the high desert between Muddy Gap on US 287 and Casper, either north or south of Pathfinder Reservoir. We'll be headed east from Douglas, WY to reach Crawford, NE on US 20.
So, anybody with ideas about things to see or places to camp all the way across central Wyoming and in the Nebraska Sandhills, chime in. It's all possible at this point.
Foy
