Vacation Help

[ShawneeNFhunter]

My wife, our 15yr old son and I are planning to spend an extended vacation traveling through Montana and Wyoming. This will be sight-seeing and pre-scouting for general areas to hunt. My boys and I are hoping to elk hunt and antelope hunt at some point over the next few years. What I am looking for is any advice you guys that live out there can offer. I have hunted antelope in WY before once near oregon butte and South Pass. Other than that, we are starting from scratch. We are heading from Illinois June 3 and going to GlacierNP first.
If you have opinions of "must see", please share.

Thanks.

 

[fishing4sanity]

I wish I knew those two states well enough to be of more help, lots to see in both. If you're just on a wonder about you may want to consider RMEF headquarters in Missoula or the National Bison Range. The Beartooth Highway between Red Lodge MT and Cooke City is very scenic, but if anyone is prone to carsickness it may get to them. Of course there's Yellowstone and the drive between Yellowstone's East Gate and Cody, WY. If you're in Cody hit Buffalo Bill's Irma Hotel & Restaurant. Then whichever interstate/highway you're taking back east, look for a few scenic detours. Greybull to Sheridan is a scenic drive or get lost in another direction and fish the Miracle Mile.

 

[VAspeedgoat]

Great advise there. Check out the bighorn medicine wheel, and allow time for the Cody night rodeo. There's also devils tower and the black hills. Not in Wyoming but on your way, check out the Crazy Horse monument and stop at Wall drug in SD.

Tons of fishing everywhere, brush up on your fly fishing for yellowstone but glacier has some open water for bait or spinfishing. Regs are a little confusing at first so make sure you know them pretty thorough.

 

[Dave N]

We stopped at the Firearms Museum in Cody. Awesome place. Another trip we stopped at the RMEF headquarters and while it was an experience, it wasn't all that we were expecting. Taking the drive through the Badlands in South Dakota is always nice. Swing through Sturgis. Sleepy little town that explodes when the bikes show up. We thought Darby, MT was a quaint little "western" town. Wish we would have stopped and explored a bit. Depending on how much time you have, get off the main roads and head out exploring the side roads. The scenery in the mountains is not to be missed. Have fun!

 

[MTGunner]

Illinois/

Where do you live in Illinois? What do you want to hunt 1st? MTG

 

[Deleted member 20812]

How long do you have?

What are the primary areas of interest?

Are you there to see the sights or experience them (see first question)?

Are you camping?

GNP is amazing. There are so many places to see that it would be pretty easy to overwhelm yourself. Depending on time, your priorities, and your resources, you need to determine if you want to stay on the beaten path or venture off of it.

A friend of mine did a motorcycle trip to MT (dual purpose bike). I sent him up into the Sweetgrass Hills, down through Big Sandy, down across the PN Bridge, into the Breaks, and then into Judith Basin and back over the Little Belts. He loved it, but he wanted to see off the beaten path stuff.

You could easily spend a week fishing the SE part of Wyoming and never leave the area. Same goes for SW Montana.

 

[mixedbag]

If you stop at crazy horse museum take the "needles highway" back to main highway.That was a really cool part of my trip home from montana one time after we stopped at Mt Rushmore.I hit a lot of other suggested stops and agree they are worth a look

 

[ShawneeNFhunter]

Where do you live in Illinois? What do you want to hunt 1st? MTG

I live in southern Illinois, about 40 miles east of St.Louis,MO.

We will probably be looking at an Elk hunt first. Definitely DIY. We're thinking we would probably do Montana and try and pick up a leftover general tag. We are just getting started and haven't started buying points yet.

 

[ShawneeNFhunter]

How long do you have?

What are the primary areas of interest?

Are you there to see the sights or experience them (see first question)?

Are you camping?

GNP is amazing. There are so many places to see that it would be pretty easy to overwhelm yourself. Depending on time, your priorities, and your resources, you need to determine if you want to stay on the beaten path or venture off of it.

A friend of mine did a motorcycle trip to MT (dual purpose bike). I sent him up into the Sweetgrass Hills, down through Big Sandy, down across the PN Bridge, into the Breaks, and then into Judith Basin and back over the Little Belts. He loved it, but he wanted to see off the beaten path stuff.

You could easily spend a week fishing the SE part of Wyoming and never leave the area. Same goes for SW Montana.

We have two weeks to burn. I'm sure that will fly by. We don't really have an agenda. Just looking for an adventure. We will want to do some hiking, but my wife has some physical limitation, so it can't be too strenuous. (She walks a couple miles a day)

We are planning to camp some and hotel some. Do we have to camp at campgrounds? We are definitely interested in off the beaten path. Will "off the beaten path" be easy to find / stumble onto?

As far as hunting, we don't have any idea where we would hunt if we are able in the next couple years, so we are hoping to just get a feel for what that might look like.

BTW- thanks to all for your input. It's gonna help a ton. We are so stoked to get out there. The Mrs. is just a little afraid I won't want to come back home.

 

[Deleted member 20812]

We have two weeks to burn. I'm sure that will fly by. We don't really have an agenda. Just looking for an adventure. We will want to do some hiking, but my wife has some physical limitation, so it can't be too strenuous. (She walks a couple miles a day)

We are planning to camp some and hotel some. Do we have to camp at campgrounds? We are definitely interested in off the beaten path. Will "off the beaten path" be easy to find / stumble onto?

As far as hunting, we don't have any idea where we would hunt if we are able in the next couple years, so we are hoping to just get a feel for what that might look like.

BTW- thanks to all for your input. It's gonna help a ton. We are so stoked to get out there. The Mrs. is just a little afraid I won't want to come back home.

You won't find a shortage of places to camp. Off the beaten path is pretty easy to do, so long as you are comfortable with it. Since you are heading to GNP, you could easily spend a day or two driving through the Missouri Breaks on your way, and camp somewhere along the way.

The Marias River is a neat place to see. There is a really nice BOR campground below Tiber Dam, but mosquitos can be bad depending on the water levels.

I'd go from GNP over to Kalispell, then make a loop down the Swan towards Ovando and decide which way you wanted to go from there. You could go from Ovando through Drummond and up to Philipsburg. Take the Georgetown Lake byway and then head over the Pintlers to the Big Hole.

Go up through the upper Big Hole. Hit Bannack State Park. Head up the Centennial Valley and go whichever way the wind blows you. Drive the Gravelly Range Road. Visit Virginia City and Nevada City. Hit Lewis & Clark Caverns.

Plenty of fishing along this entire route. Plenty of elk country to feast your eyes upon. I'd try to see as much as the state from the gravel roads as you can. It's a hell of a lot more relaxing than driving the interstate.

 

[Irrelevant]

If you have opinions of "must see", please share.

Thanks.

The if you don't mind a few others people around, a spectacular over-nighter is the Cirque of Towers in the eastern Wind River range. You could probably do it as a day trip (~9 miles one way) but it's worth packing a sleeping bag and watching the sunset and sunrise.

 

[Irrelevant]

We will want to do some hiking, but my wife has some physical limitation, so it can't be too strenuous. (She walks a couple miles a day)

Whoops, didn't catch that. Ignore the Cirque idea

 

[HuntsByDesign]

In terms of "touristy" stuff, stay one night at the Occidental Hotel in Buffalo, Wyoming. Visit the attached saloon. Eat breakfast at the Busy Bee and rent fishing gear at the Sport's Lure in town. If you want to stay longer in Buffalo the KOA is pretty great albeit far from "roughing it".

 

[MooseCaboose]

What is your weapon of choice?

In Montana you could be archery hunting antelope this fall with the 900 tag. Good anywhere in the state. These hunts are low on success and high on challenge. However, the game is generally easy to locate and numerous stalks per day are the norm. If you are rifle hunters, there are a few units where you could have a decent chance to draw without any bonus points.

You could also be hunting elk in one of the over the counter areas this fall with either a rifle or a bow. Look on cadastral.mt.gov and you will find lots of public land all over the place.

State land can have weird restrictions for camping, but the anything that the Feds control is generally pretty relaxed and you can pretty well camp where you like. Check with the local jurisdiction. Also be aware of fire restrictions that can come in place during hot summer months.