RV destination: Montana?

[Fermion]

Countdown 10 days until we are homeless. Setting off from the Seattle area to places unknown, but in general east (a bit harder to go west).

We made reservations at a Flathead Lake campground in mid June that has a boat launch for our sailboat, but our house closes May 25 (hope!) so we have some time to putter around in Idaho or Montana before getting to Flathead.

I found Dunn Creek campground somewhere (maybe ultimatecampgrounds.com?) and it looks promising as a first stop. Looks to be not too far off Hwy 2 and has what looks to be a pretty large area to accommodate our 27 foot camper + 17 foot sailboat parking. Free too.

We probably will not be packed correctly initially so this might be a good place to unwind and reorganize. I could also finish up the wiring on the cnc milling machine I installed in the garage portion of our RV. I went overboard building a 4 axis brushless controller and ran out of time to completely finish. No worry as I am taking o'scope, iron, and hand tools with us.

Any Montanites familiar with this campground or other areas we might be interested visiting? Probably will be tooling around Montana until July, when we head toward the great lakes on some uncharted path.

Here is a google view of Dunn Creek and also the Flathead Lake campground (they do charge for that one, but having the sailboat docked right next to where we are parked with the RV is worth the ~$30 a night total)

 

[RonBoyd]

Montana is such a big State that no matter where you go you will be amazed. Instant to mind would be Glacier NP, Fort Benton (imagine that those big Paddle Wheel boats traveled all the way up the Mississippi River to this place), Greasy Grass/Little Bighorn Battlefield, Pompey's Pillar... but, again, there are too many to mention them all.

http://www.fortbenton.com/

 

[NW-Bound]

Flathead Lake is the largest fresh water body by surface area west of the Mississippi. We were there a month ago. We stayed at a timeshare on its shore in Bigfork (parking our motorhome for a week). The water was low, and a local said the lake was filling up.

And while picnicking at the nearby Swan Lake, which flows into Flathead, we talked to some boaters. They were locals and launched their boats for a quick fishing to get some bass for dinner. Swan Lake has a public boat launch, and also a CG nearby which was not opened at that time. This "Swan Lake Campground" is run by the Forest Service.

We were in Montana for a total of 2 weeks, and one week of that was during a late and sudden winter storm, so did not have a chance to experience more camping area. We had to skip Fort Benton, for example, fled to Denver and still got caught in the storm there. So, I had no recommendations for CG in Montana, but you may want to check out the Swan Lake CG mentioned above.



By the way, going east from Washington State, one can stop in Coeur d'Alene and do a bit of sailing (boating or sailing is something I have never tried).

 

[NW-Bound]

Another possibility for a stop before Flathead Lake in June would be Lake Pend Oreille in northen Idaho to use your sailboat. I have not made it up there, but figure there would be CGs with a nearby boat launch.

 

[NW-Bound]

I just looked at Swan Lake CG on the Web. No hookup, not even a dump station and only fresh water, but only $15/night. On the other hand, there's that boat launch, though you may not be able to leave it docked.

 

[Major Tom]

Countdown 10 days until we are homeless.

Homeless my hat. Your home on wheels is way more inspiring than many of us regular folks' sticks n' bricks abodes!

Enjoy your trip, and send updates please,