2020 Summer. 2020-07-21.

Sightseeing day. Dillon, Montana to Anaconda, Montana. 166 miles.

Today, we took a drive North to scout out some free camping spots (boondocking) along the Big Hole river. I had checked the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) federal website for free camping locations in Montana and Idaho, and this stretch was one of them. ANyone can camp along Highway 43 between Divide in the East and Wisdom in the West, a distance of about 70 miles (120kms).

So, we drove up the I-15N from Dillon, to the Divide turnoff on the 43, and then headed West along the 43, which hugs the Big Hole river all the way.
We found two really nice free camping spots with beautiful views of the river on some Forest Service roads, but as they are a couple of miles away from anyone on rough dirt roads, Karen is not too keen on these spots. We then found another two spots in some inexpensive limited-service campgrounds at $10/night, but still dry-camping with no power or water or dumps. As our rig is setup with solar electricity and plenty of water and waste tank capacity and propane for an easy 2 weeks, this is a good option for us.
I took a pic of the river, below, from one of the campsites. Beautiful views!

Karen had also wanted to visit a small town, Anaconda, in the North, so we took a side trip off the 43 towards Anaconda. Nice little town. We stopped at a DQ for a bite to eat and a small Blizzard. Even Maddie had one of DQ’s little icecream bowls for dogs. She LOVES icecream!

On the way to Anaconda, we passed a “Wildlife Viewing refuge” so stopped and took a short drive to the top of the hill to look down into the valley. The wildest game we saw was a herd of cattle haha, but we did come across a hiker with his dog. He was tanned brown as boot leather and seemed to not have an ounce of fat on him, so I asked him where he’d come from. He causally said he’d walked from Glacier National Park (which is 400 kms away (250 miles!) OK, that explains the lack of fat! 🙂

I took a few pics of the valley, as below.