A couple of summers ago our family went on a month long trip out west.
Our main destination was Montana, but we also spent time in Wyoming and
South Dakota, and had great times in those places. I go through place
by place, campground by campground, and do my best to describe
them. You can use these descriptions as a help in getting some
ideas on where you might enjoy going, and you can use the links to get
more information and/or actually make arrangements.
After a long, though
enjoyable, twelve hour or so drive through Missouri and Iowa, we
finally arrived at Newton Hills State Park in Southeastern South
Dakota. We camped here, and grilled hotdogs for dinner. This is
somewhat of an oasis in the Great Plains, an outcropping of forest
where there are few trees.
(Great park for camping near Mt. Rushmore)
This campground in the Black Hills
of South Dakota is one of the prettiest places we visited on the entire
trip. One thing to remember is that the Black Hills are in no way
hills. They are full scale mountains, not much smaller than the
Rockies. After hearing that we were going to the Black "Hills", I was
utterly stunned by the the beautiful alpine environment we were in. On
our drive to the campground, we saw Mount Rushmore. It is hard to
imagine how the sculptors could have turned a mountain side into such
beautiful artwork reflecting this country's past. Horsethief Lake is a
beautiful lake, as pretty as any I've seen. It's also popular with
fisherman, who go after its abundant stock of rainbow trout. The second
day we were there, we went to a nighttime light display on Mount
Rushmore. It was incredibly beautiful, and a National Park Service
worker explained how it was sculpted. This area in South Dakota is
absolutely as amazing in, its own way, as any place we visited.
This part of the Bighorn Mountains
in north central Wyoming represents everything that the American West
is about. You can find seclusion, mountains, mountain valleys, and of
course trout fishing. We stayed at North Tongue River Campground in the
utterly beautiful small river valley of the North Tongue River. Moose
are everywhere, and that includes the campground, where we were
somewhat scared to find a cow and her calf. This could theoretically
have been an extremely dangerous situation, but they ran away before
any problems were caused. A small creek runs right through the
campground and it's very pretty. The river itself is about 200
yards from camp, and we caught plenty of cutthroat, rainbow, and brook
trout from its fast moving water. Trout numbers are high, and it showed
up in our catch rate. Unfortunately, the trout tend to be on the small
side, averaging about eight inches when we fished there, and we caught
no trout larger than about 11 inches in almost three full days of
fishing here. Still it's a beautiful river in a beautiful place.
This state park near the headwaters of the
Missouri River has a little bit of everything. It's namesake feature is
its caves. You can hike to this cave, and take a guided tour. The cave
is stunning, with stalagmites and stalactites seemingly everywhere. The
park is located in the Rocky Mountain foothills, and is very dry and
basically a high desert atmosphere. Be careful for bears, as we sited a
cub near the cave, and it nearly startled us to death, until state park
workers pepper sprayed it, and caused it to leave. Fisherman will also
feel at home here, as the park provides some access to the Jefferson
River. Fishing is marginal in this stretch, but a patient angler can
find some big brown trout here. This area was explored by William
Clark, hence the name.
This small Forest Service Cabin is
found in the Pioneer Mountains of Montana, near Melrose. To get there,
you have to go on a long, gravel road through the high desert
foothills. Then all of a sudden, you begin to rise into the beautiful
Pioneer Mountains, and trees all of sudden appear. It is here you get
your first sighting of Canyon Creek, although this stretch is on
private land. Soon, you enter Beaverhead- Deerlodge National Forest,
and the road begins to parallel the little creek, which is now mostly
accessible by the public.. Then finally you make it to the old cabin
(which can be rented for around $25 a night). By the time you get to
the cabin, you are high in the mountains, and it sits underneath a
cliff, on which you can sight mountain goat. The creek itself is about
250 yards from the cabin, and is extremely beautiful, dropping from one
plunge pool to another. Fisherman will enjoy fishing the creek. The
main fish you will find are tiny brook trout, which you will find in
every pool, although you can also catch rainbows and cutthroat trout.
If you fish this stream, or one like it, release your catch, because
there isn't a huge number of fish in this stream, and there are
even fewer trout large enough to breed. Although I've never done this,
I presume the cabin would also make a pretty good base camp during the
early hunting season, based on the amount of deer we saw during our
five night stay.
This National Park in
Northwestern Montana near the Canadian border is the most stunningly
beautiful place I have ever seen in my life. In their lifetime, every
person should drive the Going to the Sun road. I believe if we had go
any further up this road, truly would have reached the sun. The
mountains here are of stunning proportions, and the Glaciers stretch
for hundreds upon hundreds of yards. Get here within the next few
years, because global warming is devastating this park's glaciers, and
within a few years, they will be completely gone. This park is also a
fisherman's paradise with countless lakes, rivers, and creeks, most of
which contain trout, and some provide excellent fishing, such as the
three forks of the Flathead River. There are many regulations in most
campgrounds in Glacier meant to protect people from bears, so camping
here is a hassle. A better idea would be to find a campground outside
the park. This park is worth the hassle, and is a truly amazing place.
Logan State Park is
basically in the middle of nowhere, located on Middle Thompson Lake.
This foothills lake is beautiful, and provides good fishing for trout,
bass, yellow perch, and northern pike. To be honest with you, Middle
Thompson Lake is really the one and only feature of this park, besides
a nice campground. The fishing makes this side trip worth it.
Everywhere you look, there are yellow perch, and pike trying to eat
them. Other species found are rainbow trout and largemouth bass.
Using spoons and spinners we had good success catching perch and pike.
We were fishing from inflatable kayaks in deep water. From my kayak, I
saw scores of bass, but I had no success in landing any.
Bull River Road with Cabinet Mtns. Backdrop
This campground is located in northwestern Montana, where the Bull
River (itself a world class trout fishery) forms the inlet of
Cabinet Gorge Reservoir. This lake is most renown for its brown trout
fishing, but yellow perch and whitefish are actually more common.
Fishing from shore near the campground with nightcrawlers in mid July,
we caught all three of these fish species, in enough abundance to have
some pretty nice fish fries. We also had success catching yellow perch
and trout from our kayaks in brush piles near the inlet. This lake is
located in the foothills of the Cabinet Mountains, and is near
Sandpoint, Idaho, and Lake Pond Oreille which is known world wide for
it's deepwater trout fishing. The Cabinet Mountains are not huge by
Montana standards, but they are beautiful, and the area is considered
to be a temperate rainforest habitat. By the way, don't take back roads
to get here, especially not Silver Butte Pass Road, unless you want, to
quadruple your driving time, and risk your life on steep mountainsides
and rickety bridges. That's a mistake we made, and believe me, we don't
want you to make it.
Although Gem Peak Fire tower is close to Bull River
Campground (you can see the lake from the tower), it is an utterly
different experience. The tower that can be rented for about $25 a
night, is on the top of Gem Peak, one of the tallest mountains in the
Cabinet Mountain Range. The tower is thirty feet above the ground, and
it will take a while before you can climb up its stairs and not be at
least be a little scared. With that said, the structure is very
architecturally sound, and safe from storms because of its lightning
rods. That is not to say that weathering a storm is not a rather scary
experiences in this tower, as that was something we experienced. If you
stay here, be very careful of bears. Within a few miles of the tower,
we saw bears on more than one occasion, and we sited both black bear
and grizzly bear. Seeing these bears was a somewhat scary, yet cool
experience. There is a small stream about a mile from the tower
that probably contains trout, but I wouldn't suggest hiking to it,
because that is where we sited the grizzly bears, and I personally
would want to avoid an encounter with one of these at all costs. There
are endless hiking opportunities near the tower, but you absolutely
cannot forget your bear spray if you value your life. When we were
there, a deer frequented the area just below the tower almost every
night, which I thought was really cool. This is an absolutely awesome
place, and pretty much anyone can afford to stay here.
Crazy Creek Campground
Located in the high in the
Bitterroot Mountains, this is one of the prettiest places I have ever
stayed. This national forest campground is beautiful, and there are a
lot of things to do. The most popular activity is probably fishing. The
stream is a tributary to the Bitterroot system, and you can be fishing
on the at least one of the Bitterroot forks (you can choose from the
Main Stem, East Branch, and West Branch) in about 15 minutes. All three
provide world-class wade fishing opportunities for Rainbow, Brown, and
Cutthroat trout, with Cutthroat being the bread and butter catch. Also,
don't overlook Crazy Creek, which borders the campground. Good pools
are available within one hundred yards of the some campsites. The
fishing is great for Cutthroat and Brook trout, and access is easy
because this section is located in the national forest. Please release
your catch in this stream, as the trout population is fragile as any
small creek. While it is a beautiful stream, I admit to hold a little
grudge against. While attempting to stand on a wet rock to cast to an
especially deep run ( I had caught an approximately 15 inch trout here
the day before, a lunker by this stream's standards), I fell and hit my
lower back fairly hard, which didn't make me feel too good for the rest
of the day. No real harm was done however, and I was catching big cutts
and brookies again by the next morning.
Yellowstone National Park and Hebgen Lake
Hebgen Lake from Above
Yellowstone National Park is as
beautiful as anyone would say. Elk are plentiful, as well as trout
streams, geysers, bison, and mountains. So are people. The crowding did
some to detract from the Yellowstone experience, but It was still very
enjoyable. We didn't get to fish much, but the scenery was beautiful,
and definitely worth the visit. Old Faithful was amazing, and the paint
pots were breathtaking. Still, Yellowstone isn't exactly my cup of tea.
I much prefer areas that have fewer people, but you can't really leave
the Northern Rocky Mountains without paying it a visit. We stayed at a
campground on Hebgen Lake, (which is located in Montana just outside
the park) which is a great rainbow trout fishery. We also fished the Madison River above
Hebgen Lake. Late July is not a good time to visit the Madison upstream
of Hebgen, and the water temperature was not at all in the trout's
comfort range. I would recomend fishing downstream of Quake Lake this late in
the summer if you want to fish the Madison. Temperatures will be much
lower, at there will be better fishing.
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