Homestake, MT

Leaving Glacier National Park, it's a little less than 450 miles to Yellowstone. We'd like to stop for the night in Butte, which is right on the I-90 corridor and about halfway. It's a long drive, and we pass lots of open, Montana country.

We haven't been able to find a decent RV park in Butte with available campsites. As a backup, there are a couple of dispersed camping options just east of Butte, Homestake and Pipestone. Reviews on Pipestone say it's a popular with ATVers, so can get noisy. We go to Homestake for a couple of reasons; first it's closer, and second we're hoping it will be quieter. We get off the highway, and when we get past the Homestake trail head, the road turns to dirt. Winding, hilly, dirt roads in a 33' RV is always risky, so we park the RV and take the Subaru to scout what's ahead.

The first plateau we come to already has several RVs and trailers. Not wanting to get into anyone's space, we head up the road and find a branch off with a good level parking area.

It seems like a nice quiet place to stay...until the 4 quads come roaring up the road and stop right on the road outside the RV. It's older guy with a rifle strapped to his quad, his wife, and, I'm guessing, some of his kids. They apparently had a camp just up the hill, and he had stopped to adjust something on his ATV. They adjusted their gear and headed off up the hill. Nothing really wrong with it, just a family out camping and having a good time. Still, you are aware that this isn't exactly like home, and we might stick out. The fancy pants with the big ole RV and the California plates. Although we are just about a mile off of I-90, it also feels somewhat remote -queue the dueling banjos Deliverance movie music.

Things are relatively quiet again. Several cars pass by as there is a lake and campground further up the road, we settle in for a quiet evening.

The next morning, another set of ATVers go roaring up the hill by our RV. Wendy is glad we're leaving today...