Last Days of Montana and Idaho

About 10 miles from the Hogan Cabin was the location of where on August 9 and 10, 1877 the Nez Perce were able to repel a surprise attack by the US Forces who were trying to force the Nez Perce onto a reservation.

The battlefield is a the base of the grassy hillside.

On the day between the two nights we stayed at Hogan Cabin, I was thinking we would have a quiet, electricity free day of sitting around reading and chilling.  Onions, who turns out to be more restless than me, decided we should drive....and ended up going to Butte, MT.

In Butte, we took a bus tour around town. The most interesting site was the Berkeley Pit.

We spent a couple afternoons at the Lost Trail Hot Springs. 

Turns out Lost Trail Pass, our turn off for the cabin is at the Idaho/Montana border.  Idaho, a new state for Onions.

On the drive to Boise, this happened.

On our one night be Boise, we arranged to meet up with Ian and his family.

Ian's wife, So Young cooked up a killer Korean dinner.

And as we drove back across the Bay Bridge into San Francisco, we were greeted by the fog.  A perfect welcome home!

Hogan Cabin

Driving south from Missoula into the Bitterroot Mountains along the Idaho/Montana Border is the Lost Trail Pass, Chief Joseph Pass and the Gibbons Pass.  We came here to spend a couple nights in the Hogan Cabin.

" The Hogan Cabin is a small cabin located on the Lewis and Clark Historical Trail.  The cabin was built in the 1920's to provide field quarters for trail crews, smoke chasers, timber cruisers and grazing inspectors that worked in the area."  -- Recreation.gov

The cabin is now can be reserved by the public.  Apparently it's particularly popular in the winter for use by snowmobilers and cross-country skiers.

The actual Hogan Cabin of the compound which had three buildings.

This must be a storage shed as it was locked up.

The shed and outhouse, building three.

The back of the cabin as viewed from the shed.

The view to the south.

Morning coffee and a book.

Firewood provided.

A wood stove inside.  No electricity or running water, so we had to bring our own.

The cabin has two sets of bunkbeds. Oh, and that's Onions' foot.

A propane campstove is provided as well as basic provisions like pots and pans.

DINNER!!!

Leaving the cabin.....

Bison and Buddhas

Packing up camp at Glacier and this guy came by camp.

On the drive south from Glacier to Missoula, we stopped by the National Bison Range.

To visit the range, one takes a loop drive through the park on a dirt road at around 10 MPH.  I expected to see herds of Bison, ala Dances With Wolves.  But all we saw were single bison here and there at a distance.

From a distance until we turned the corner and this guy was right next to the car. Bison Seflie time.

Looking North on the Flathead Valley in Big Sky Country

I occasionally check the website Atlas Obscura to see if there is any site on our route and about 20 miles north of Missoula there was one a half mile off the highway.

Not what you expect to see in Montana

The mountain setting did make it feel a bit like Tibet

We got to Missoula and decided to climb Mount Sentinel to the M that sits above the campus of University of Montana

Sunset over Missoula....and then dinner at a Chinese restaurant.