Polaris, MT

Sunday, October 13

This morning, we woke up at Bass Creek Campground in Montana’s Bitterroot Mountains. Our overnight stay was quiet and cold last night. There were only a few other campers there, but the trailhead just up the road was booming with hikers already at 9:00am.

We had another long day of driving ahead of us, so Andi and I decided a nice morning hike would be a good way for the kids to burn off some energy. After breakfast, we drove over to the Bass Creek trailhead and parked our RV there. It was a chilly morning, but skies were clear. We bundled up and hit the trail.

Bass Creek Trail is a 6.6 moderately trafficked out & back trail, and we didn’t have the time or expected Tory and Aden to hike the whole thing. Andi and I planned to walk for a few miles and then turn around and hit the road by 11:00am.

The trail was really gorgeous, following the bank of the creek. We saw several other hikers with dogs on the trail, and they were all very friendly and respectful with their pets, which I appreciated. Tory isn’t a big dog lover, so it’s always nice when people hold their animals close and allow her to pass without feeling threatened.

Tory and Aden hunted for a geocache along the way, and found it hidden behind a rock on the trail. We like geocaching with the kids when we hike. Having a “treasure” to search for keeps them motivated to move along.

Back in the RV, we drove 30 minutes to Hamilton, Montana and decided to get lunch there. Andi had heard good things about this little town, but I wasn’t so sure as we drove through it. The streets were a ghost town, we didn’t see another person anywhere.

We parked and decided on a place called Nap’s for lunch. Inside the doors — it was packed! We weren’t expecting that. We ordered burgers and fries for the four of us and were lucky enough to snag one of the last available booths. When our burgers arrived, they were seriously larger than our heads! Holy cow. Had we known, Andi and I could have easily split one. Tory’s face in this picture cracks me up.

You can tell we’re nearing the end of our two-month road trip because we’ve succumbed to eating burgers the size of our heads. What are healthy foods and adequate-sized portions? We seem to have forgotten.

Back on the road again toward home. The next leg of our journey required crossing the Bitterroot Mountain Range and we were thankful for a good-weather day. Had we left a week earlier, it might’ve been a different story! The first big snow storm of the season blew through Montana last week, but roadways were clear of snow and ice now.

From Hamilton, Andi contemplated which route to take. The shorter route advised vehicles over 20 ft. from navigating the mountain pass. “Narrow, mountainous, winding gravel roadway 15 miles ahead” the signage read.

Our RV is 24’ (and more like 26’ with our bike rack on the back). Taking the other (longer) route added 40 miles to our trip, and I urged Andi to take that route instead. We sat, stopped at the intersection, for what felt like 5 minutes before Andi agreed to turn around and go the longer route. “Ugh, it pains me to do that!” he said. But, the last thing we needed was to find ourselves in a tricky driving situation and ultimately, he knew it.

It was close to 2:00pm and Andi and I figured we had about 2-3 hours of driving in us before dark. We considered driving all the way to Paradise Valley because we enjoyed that area so much on our trip our west, but ultimately decided to stay the night at one of southwest Montana’s infamous hot springs resorts. None of them had glowing reviews for cleanliness; “rustic” is the way they described themselves but we figured we’d check it out anyway. How bad could it be?

We settled on Elkhorn Hot Springs because they had an attached campground. My initial thought as we pulled up was “oh, heck no” but Andi wasn’t as deterred. “Let me go in and check it out,” he said.

Andi returned to the RV a few minutes later to report that it “wasn’t as bad as it looked.” What the heck, we decided to give it a shot. I helped Tory and Aden into their swimming suits, pulled on mine as well, and we went into the hot springs for an evening soak.

Elkhorn Hot Springs was a fun stop. Two pools between 98-105 degrees and the soak felt great (if you could look past the mold on the walls). Classy pool-side cocktails helped.

in the end, we decided not to camp at Elkhorn Hot Springs because there’s so many free camping options to choose from in Montana. We toweled off, hopped back in our RV, and headed farther along the Pioneer Mountain Scenic Byway to check out one of the many campgrounds along the way.

It was getting dark, so we ended up settling on Mono Creek Campground. The entire campground was empty — not another single person. There were no services available in the off-season, just a place to park, but that’s all we needed for the night.

Back on the road tomorrow…