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#1 searching for nowhere

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Posted 07 October 2018 - 03:53 PM

I'm back from my trip exploring SW Montana.  I'm beginning to post the trip to my blog. It may take a week or so to get done, but you can start following along now.  

 

I'll update this post when I'm done.  

 

Enjoy


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Camping with a small trailer.  Everyday is a good day to go camping.

 

https://searchingfor.wordpress.com/

 

 


#2 Foy

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Posted 08 October 2018 - 10:17 PM

Looks like you and I were in Philipsburg and around Melrose and Vipond Park within a day or two of one another.  

 

Foy


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#3 searching for nowhere

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Posted 09 October 2018 - 01:24 AM

Vipond Park was one of my favorite places I discovered.  Did you drive the road between the kilns and Vipond Park?  I had been warned about the road at the ranger station. I'm a wimp.  But I decided to drive it and fortunately I didn't meet anyone coming the other direction.


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Camping with a small trailer.  Everyday is a good day to go camping.

 

https://searchingfor.wordpress.com/

 

 


#4 Foy

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Posted 09 October 2018 - 07:19 AM

Sure did. Wife was on the drop off side. No problem.
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#5 searching for nowhere

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Posted 14 October 2018 - 03:03 AM

The blog posts are done.  

 

Enjoy.  

 

Now I need to start planning the next trip.

 

https://searchingfor.blog/


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Camping with a small trailer.  Everyday is a good day to go camping.

 

https://searchingfor.wordpress.com/

 

 


#6 Foy

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Posted 14 October 2018 - 10:34 AM

Very nice trip report!  

 

If it was Elk Lake Lodge you called seeking road into for the Monida-Red Rock Lakes NWR route, they closed for the season on Tuesday, Sept 25.  Jake and Laurel, the proprietors, hung out the "Closed" signs and themselves headed off to Bozeman as we pulled out Tuesday morning, leaving the hired help to begin the winterization of the cabins and other infrastructure.

 

We'd stopped by Bannack on Sunday the 23rd, visited new friends in Dillon, then went out Blacktail Deer Creek to Red Rock Lakes and Elk Lake Lodge for 2 nights.

 

Foy


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#7 searching for nowhere

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Posted 15 October 2018 - 01:48 AM

Foy:  Did you drive up to the Gravelly Range?  

 

Elk Lake Lodge is on my to-do list.  I have a friend who loves it there.  That is how I heard of Red Rock Lakes.  


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Camping with a small trailer.  Everyday is a good day to go camping.

 

https://searchingfor.wordpress.com/

 

 


#8 Foy

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Posted 15 October 2018 - 10:41 AM

Yes, we drove pretty much the whole length of the Gravelly Range Road (GRR) upon leaving Elk Lake Lodge.  We took the North Shore Road west from ELL to Metzler Creek, crossed some BLM land going north up to its headwaters (mostly a two-track, NOT for trailers, and clay-sufaced/rutted) which becomes FS 290 at the BLM/NF boundary line.  Another 3 or 4 miles and you're connected to the Eureka Basin Rd which there takes on the FS 290 designation and holds it for around 30 miles north, past Black Butte, where then Call Rd (FS 292) takes you down off of the plateau to Fish Hatchery Rd south of Ennis.

 

The GRR is incredible, simply incredible.  I could spend a week up there, easy.  

 

We love Elk Lake Lodge.  Very nice and well-appointed cabins, excellent food, and congenial hosts.  Be sure to venture past the lodge and over the low divide northward to Hidden Lake.  It's about 200 acres, very deep, and we saw a goodly number of rainbow trout in the 24" + range.  Its very remote access and hike-in for the last quarter mile keeps crowds away.

 

Foy


Edited by Foy, 15 October 2018 - 10:42 AM.

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#9 searching for nowhere

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Posted 15 October 2018 - 01:07 PM

I need more vacation time.

 

Thanks for the info.  The Gravelly Range will stay on my to-do list.


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Camping with a small trailer.  Everyday is a good day to go camping.

 

https://searchingfor.wordpress.com/

 

 


#10 Vic Harder

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Posted 16 October 2018 - 12:53 AM

Yes, we drove pretty much the whole length of the Gravelly Range Road (GRR) upon leaving Elk Lake Lodge.  We took the North Shore Road west from ELL to Metzler Creek, crossed some BLM land going north up to its headwaters (mostly a two-track, NOT for trailers, and clay-sufaced/rutted) which becomes FS 290 at the BLM/NF boundary line.  Another 3 or 4 miles and you're connected to the Eureka Basin Rd which there takes on the FS 290 designation and holds it for around 30 miles north, past Black Butte, where then Call Rd (FS 292) takes you down off of the plateau to Fish Hatchery Rd south of Ennis.

 

The GRR is incredible, simply incredible.  I could spend a week up there, easy.  

 

We love Elk Lake Lodge.  Very nice and well-appointed cabins, excellent food, and congenial hosts.  Be sure to venture past the lodge and over the low divide northward to Hidden Lake.  It's about 200 acres, very deep, and we saw a goodly number of rainbow trout in the 24" + range.  Its very remote access and hike-in for the last quarter mile keeps crowds away.

 

Foy

Foy,  I'm thinking of doing this in 2019, likely first week of July.  Is that too early?


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