Wild West Montana
A series of errors on my part led us to Bearmouth RV Park, 35 miles east of Missoula. I think our amazing campsite at Two Medicine in Glacier National Park went to my head and I began to believe every campsite should be that perfect. Months before, I had booked a mediocre campsite in a mediocre state park, which I hastily canceled when I saw a great site open up at a great state park. Afterward, I started to worry about the internet, so I canceled that one too.
So, we left Two Medicine early and while Michael drove, I researched private RV parks. We had a long, but beautiful drive through the Swan and Blackfoot River Valleys, so we needed to stop periodically to refuel.
Bearmouth RV Park was actually a nice park and right on the Clark Fork River. The problem was its location. We didn’t realize that the highway ramp to Missoula was closed and to go the other direction and turn around added an additional 30 miles. The only other thing off our exit was a dirt road leading to a ghost town. At one point, I asked the owners of the park where people get groceries. Her response was “If you make an illegal U-turn in the construction area, we are only 20 miles from the gas station in Clinton”.
I also asked her what we should do in the area. She told us to visit the cute town of Phillipsburg (45 minutes away) because there was a good candy store. After confirming that Phillipsburg also had a grocery store, we decided it was worth the drive.
She wasn’t kidding about a good candy store, plus we also found a good brewery.
On Friday afternoon, we decided to go to Garnet, “Montana’s Best Preserved Ghost Town”, managed by the Bureau of Land Management. After all, it was close! Only 15 miles away. Michael told me there was a better road that we could take but that would be 60 miles and I could choose which road to take. Of course, I chose the 15-mile way. It wasn’t that bad until it was. The last 5 miles were a single-lane dirt road with hairpin switchbacks up a mountain. If we had met another car (which we didn’t), there were zero places to pull over and one of us would have had to back up or down the mountain.
In its 1890s heyday, Garnet had 13 saloons for its 1,000 residents. However, unlike many mining boom towns, it was a family town with a lot of kids in school and a low crime rate.
We took the 60-mile way back home!!
On Saturday we moved to the town of Ennis for the work week. The views of the Madison Valley from the perimeter campsites in Ennis RV Village are the best we’ve ever seen at any RV park, but those get booked by people staying the entire season.
Ennis is known as a fly fishing destination on the Madison River, and the majority of the people at the RV park and in the town were there to fish. We decided to hold out on this until we got to Yellowstone.
On Sunday, we headed up into the mountains to visit Nevada City and Virginia City, two mining towns of the Alder Gulch gold rush in the 1860s, that have been redeveloped for tourism.
The entire town of Nevada City is basically a living history museum with an entrance fee. It felt like being on a movie set.
Virginia City was once the capital of territorial Montana. It still has residents and operating businesses, including restaurants and a theatre. There are also a lot of “museum” storefronts that made going to Nevada City a bit redundant. We did our typical ice cream and beer stops.
Next, we have what Michael calls a “Yellowstone Staycation”!
