Girlfriend and I went camping south of Big Timber on Saturday night. The purpose of our trip was to head up a trail she'd traveled some five years ago that she wanted to show me. She told me it was a 2-3 hour drive up the drive and then 2-3 hours back down as she recalled. Here I was worried about my poor gas mileage and running out of gas!
First I drove from Bozeman to Big Timber, MT as I've done before. Then taking McLeod road south through town to get to HWY 298. This is a paved road which takes you down to Natural Bridge Falls (this is worth the trip by itself!). Immediately as you pass the parking area for NBF you hit dirt road. HWY 298 is now called "Main Boulder Road". Continue to head south along this maintained dirt road and you'll pass many private cabins, numerous church camps (which are busy this time of year) and several US Forest Service camp grounds (all of which are full this time of year). This dirt road is easily passable by regular passenger cars but it is bumpy.
After about a 45 minute drive we finally arrive at Hick's Park Campground where we stayed Saturday evening. This may well be the nicest campground in the area (and also the furthest in) and offers concrete outhouses that appear to be regularly cleaned and stocked with toilet paper. The Boulder river flows just feet from your camp fire. Bear in mind that camp sites are close together so you will hear your neighbors and they will hear you!
If you bring your pooch along they might be able to help you gather firewood.
Sunday morning we packed up and hit the road further south. The further south you continue the worse the road conditions tend to be on this "maintained" road. Just a few minutes south of Hick's Park is the Box Canyon Pullout (aka parking area for the trailhead). This is frequented by many with horse trailers, UTVs, 4 Wheelers, and dirt bikes. At the trailhead are signs indicating trail use permits are required for mountain bikers and snow mobiles. Nothing is posted disallowing UTVs or traditional motor vehicles.
Now, this is where the road becomes "un-maintained". My Toyota Tacoma seemed to fair well, however I'm not so sure anyone with a larger/wider vehicle will want to head down this trail. You will now be entering a single lane dirt trail that allows few places to pass anyone. As you continue south there is a small water crossing that can easily be surmounted in two wheel drive. We stopped and allowed a couple UTV/RAZRs to cross ahead of us.
I wish I had taken photos along the trail itself to share! My g/f was taking the photos and she hasn't had time to dump them from her camera quite yet. I spent my time driving! Continuing south you'll eventually pass by a hunting cabin on a small patch of private land. There's also a short strip of trail that becomes an active water way - again this is easily passable. It was about this point we ran into an oncoming Jeep and were thankful there was a wide patch that we could pass one another.
Just beyond this we came to a fork in the road. We discovered that going straight (right) simply lead to a dead end. Going left required an immediate tight turn and an assent. This is where the wheeling begins. The sign post indicates this trail is 6 miles and leads to a place called "Independence". The town of "Independence" is an abandoned mining site from the 1800s. This trail appears to be frequented by 4 wheelers, dirt bikers, and UTVs. This section of the trail is particularly narrow and there are very few places to pass. I would imagine convoys or groups of vehicles would be particularly difficult to get up this road if you ran into oncoming traffic.
This is a very slow drive as there are many bumps, rocks, a few tight turns, a couple off camber bits (the lady didn't enjoy that) and one or two bypass options. One particular bypass turned out to be too narrow for my truck to turn through so we backed up a few feet to pass through a very tight section of vegetation. Start thinking about pin stripes at this point. Think hedges on both sides (can't open your doors) for 30-40 yards.
Once you get beyond all this you'll arrive at Independence. There are a small handful of severely dilapidated structures where the mining camp used to be. There are still signs of mining and the chemical exposure it caused to the terrain.
If you continue up the mountain you'll find the road becomes more fun. This is where you'll begin to run into decision making as to how you wish to go around or over rocks sticking out of the trail. If you're lifted and have 33" tires like I did you probably don't have to worry too much. However, my sliders did get used twice. This might have been due to my traveling too fast over obstacles (average speed was bout 5-6mph).
All in all this section of road took about 2 hours. That's 2 hours for a stretch that a sign post claimed was 6 miles.
The views, however, were fantastic!
First I drove from Bozeman to Big Timber, MT as I've done before. Then taking McLeod road south through town to get to HWY 298. This is a paved road which takes you down to Natural Bridge Falls (this is worth the trip by itself!). Immediately as you pass the parking area for NBF you hit dirt road. HWY 298 is now called "Main Boulder Road". Continue to head south along this maintained dirt road and you'll pass many private cabins, numerous church camps (which are busy this time of year) and several US Forest Service camp grounds (all of which are full this time of year). This dirt road is easily passable by regular passenger cars but it is bumpy.
After about a 45 minute drive we finally arrive at Hick's Park Campground where we stayed Saturday evening. This may well be the nicest campground in the area (and also the furthest in) and offers concrete outhouses that appear to be regularly cleaned and stocked with toilet paper. The Boulder river flows just feet from your camp fire. Bear in mind that camp sites are close together so you will hear your neighbors and they will hear you!
If you bring your pooch along they might be able to help you gather firewood.
Sunday morning we packed up and hit the road further south. The further south you continue the worse the road conditions tend to be on this "maintained" road. Just a few minutes south of Hick's Park is the Box Canyon Pullout (aka parking area for the trailhead). This is frequented by many with horse trailers, UTVs, 4 Wheelers, and dirt bikes. At the trailhead are signs indicating trail use permits are required for mountain bikers and snow mobiles. Nothing is posted disallowing UTVs or traditional motor vehicles.
Now, this is where the road becomes "un-maintained". My Toyota Tacoma seemed to fair well, however I'm not so sure anyone with a larger/wider vehicle will want to head down this trail. You will now be entering a single lane dirt trail that allows few places to pass anyone. As you continue south there is a small water crossing that can easily be surmounted in two wheel drive. We stopped and allowed a couple UTV/RAZRs to cross ahead of us.
I wish I had taken photos along the trail itself to share! My g/f was taking the photos and she hasn't had time to dump them from her camera quite yet. I spent my time driving! Continuing south you'll eventually pass by a hunting cabin on a small patch of private land. There's also a short strip of trail that becomes an active water way - again this is easily passable. It was about this point we ran into an oncoming Jeep and were thankful there was a wide patch that we could pass one another.
Just beyond this we came to a fork in the road. We discovered that going straight (right) simply lead to a dead end. Going left required an immediate tight turn and an assent. This is where the wheeling begins. The sign post indicates this trail is 6 miles and leads to a place called "Independence". The town of "Independence" is an abandoned mining site from the 1800s. This trail appears to be frequented by 4 wheelers, dirt bikers, and UTVs. This section of the trail is particularly narrow and there are very few places to pass. I would imagine convoys or groups of vehicles would be particularly difficult to get up this road if you ran into oncoming traffic.
This is a very slow drive as there are many bumps, rocks, a few tight turns, a couple off camber bits (the lady didn't enjoy that) and one or two bypass options. One particular bypass turned out to be too narrow for my truck to turn through so we backed up a few feet to pass through a very tight section of vegetation. Start thinking about pin stripes at this point. Think hedges on both sides (can't open your doors) for 30-40 yards.
Once you get beyond all this you'll arrive at Independence. There are a small handful of severely dilapidated structures where the mining camp used to be. There are still signs of mining and the chemical exposure it caused to the terrain.
If you continue up the mountain you'll find the road becomes more fun. This is where you'll begin to run into decision making as to how you wish to go around or over rocks sticking out of the trail. If you're lifted and have 33" tires like I did you probably don't have to worry too much. However, my sliders did get used twice. This might have been due to my traveling too fast over obstacles (average speed was bout 5-6mph).
All in all this section of road took about 2 hours. That's 2 hours for a stretch that a sign post claimed was 6 miles.
The views, however, were fantastic!
