After sleeping in a nice campground along Highway 12, I got on the road to finish the last 25 miles to Lolo Pass and go as far as I felt. I only needed to get to Bozeman Montana by 6:30 pm Thursday to meet Nancy at the airport. I had two days to cover one day's worth of travel.
After about 10 miles I pulled off at Weir Creek. One quarter mile trail led to a hot springs. Since I arrived at 8am and got to the springs before 8:30, I had them all to myself (except for the garbage left by others). There is a photo of the hot springs above Weir Creek. After an hour soaking, I headed back downstream, using my plant ID feature on the Ipad to check out the flowers. There were calypso orchids, monkey flower, trillium and several others. Other couples started up to the hot springs about the same time I was having a snack along the creek at the trailhead.
The drive up to Lolo Pass is littered with historical pullouts describing Lewis and Clark's descent out of the mountains.
Lolo Pass visitor's center was closed but the fat and sassy ground squirrels where out running around.
Highway 12 slowly descends into the Bitterroot River valley. I stopped for lunch at Bouilla cafe. I had a great meatloaf sandwich. The french fries were battered in flower, parmesan cheese and garlic. Yum. I spend an hour using their wifi to scope out campgrounds along the way to Bozeman. In the end the best lower altitude campground (i.e. snow free) was just outside of Hamilton at the opening to Blodgett Canyon. I topped off my half growler (a howler) with beer at Bitterroot Brewery. After setting up the camper, I hiked up the canyon a ways then sat by the creek for an hour or two. For dinner I ate a pound of asperagus that I bought at a roadside stand near Royal Washington. No need for more after the filling sandwich and fries at Bouille.
The next morning I ate my oatmeal and drank my coffee in the camper. Then I circled back to Hamilton to take a picture of the Roxy billboard. I guess they have run out of horses in Montana (see the photo).
Other photos include my campsite in Blodgett Canyon and views of the canyon from my hike.
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