Here is a synopsis of what we saw, where we camped, where we drove:
Some musings about our recent epic camping/exploration adventure. It was definitely in the realm of overlanding or vehicle supported travel.
Fauna: 8 golden eagles, several bald eagles, many hawks and magpies, 11 elk, a wild horse herd, several burros, 2 foxes, 3 or more coyotes, 100+ antelope, many mule and white tail deer, 1 rattlesnake, 2 gopher snakes, 1000s of cows, sheep, goats, etc. The most exciting for us was seeing 5 golden eagles at one time in Nevada along 305 and 100+ antelope along the road to Castle Gardens, WY.
Flora: MT: Montana’s largest Ponderosa Pine tree, Ross Creek Cedars, UT: Pando Aspen Grove (most massive living organism), lots of rabbit brush, sage brush, junipers, pines, other species found in the Inter-mountain, Colorado Plateau and Great Basin areas
Ghost towns: WA: Nighthawk, Ruby, MT: Granite, Garnet, WY: Atlantic City, South Pass City, UT: Frisco and NV: Osceola, Daveytown. Granite, Garnet, and Frisco were abandoned but still had remains. The others were either gone or were interspersed with RVs and vacation homes. Garnet was the best preserved; Granite was the most difficult to access.
Rock Art: Nine Mile Canyon (richest amount of native rock art in US), Buckhorn Wash panel, unnamed site in Buckhorn Draw, Rochester panel, Old RR Grade sites, Moore Road Cutoff sites, and Pictograph Cave state park in Wyoming. All but the last one were in Utah. All were easy to access, but you had to hunt for a number of them once given the location. They weren’t always obvious. And, we found others in the same area by further exploration. The Rochester panel is a moderate 1 mile in and out trail. Buckhorn Wash and the snakes along Moore Road Cutoff were drive-in sites. The others were short hikes from parking areas off paved, gravel or single track roads.
Waterfalls: WA: Crystal Falls, MT: Char Falls, Lost Creek Falls, Skalkaho Falls, Bridge Falls, WY: Gibbon Falls, Rustic Falls
Canyons: WA: Similkameen Canyon, MT: Blackfoot Canyon, WY: Bighorn, Flaming Gorge, Wind River, Red Canyon, UT: Flaming Gorge, Buckhorn Draw, The Wedge Overlook, Nine Mile
Rivers: WA: Skagit, Kettle, Columbia, Pend Oreille, Methow, Chewuch, ID: Pend Oreille, MT: Blackfoot, Missouri headwaters: Jefferson, Madison + Gallatin rivers, Yellowstone, Clark Fork, Bitterroot, WY: Bighorn, Green, Shoshone, Wind, UT: Green, Fremont, NV: Quinn, OR: Donner and Blitzen, John Day
Scenic Drives: WA: North Cascades Highway, Loomis to Oroville Road, MT: Skalkaho Highway, WY: Red Canyon backcountry scenic byway, Wind River Canyon Scenic Byway, Blue Rim, UT: Flaming Gorge-Green River Basin scenic byway, OR: High Desert Discovery Scenic Byway
National Parks+Monuments+Recreation Areas: Yellowstone, Flaming Gorge NRA, Pompey’s Pillar, Bighorn NRA
Campgrounds: WA: Klipchuck, Palmer Lake, Lost Lake, Snag Cove, Starvation Lake, Pioneer Park, MT: Bull River, Cascade, Lolo Creek, Stuart Mill Bay FAS, Lost Creek state park, Moose Creek, Missouri Headwaters state park, Palisades, Carbella, Otter Creek, Itch-kep-pe, Bundy Bridge FAS, Far West FAS, WY: Deaver Lake, Lower Wind River, Atlantic City Gulch, UT: Wedge Overlook, OR: Page Springs, WA: Vernita Bridge, Klipchuck. These do not add up to 47 nights as we boondocked or dispersed camped in many places. Our total expenses for camping was around $150. Lost Creek state park was the most expensive as we were non-residents in Montana. The cheapest was free at dispersed sites on public land: BLM, USFS, Montana FAS or Washington Fish and Game.
Cities and towns: we tend to avoid these by driving backroads. But, we needed to stop for fuel and food so we stopped at the following: WA: Oroville, Colville, IDPriest River, MT: St. Regis, Hamilton*, Anaconda, Drummond, Helena*, Ennis, Livingston, Columbus, Forsyth, WY: Greybull, Riverton*, UT: Roosevelt, Wellington, Huntington*,, Emery, Richfield*, NV: Ely, Tonopah, Battle Mountain, OR: Burns*, Umatilla, WA: Ephrata
* groceries
Hairy roads: MT: Skalkaho Highway, the road to Granite ghost town. The first began from near Hamilton, MT as a paved road. It remained paved but narrowed until it changed to gravel. Enroute to Skalkaho Falls, this part became rutted, rough and narrow with sheer drop offs. Although it continued to be rough after the falls a switchback section before the 7250’ pass, eventually it became wider and then paved as we neared Highway 1. The road to Granite ghost town was one of the toughest roads we have ever driven. Narrow, rutted, drop offs, blind curves, it had everything an access road can offer. We made it there and back but not without some tense moments.