Billings to Whitefish: via Great Falls vs via Butte

[punomatic]

I am in Billings, MT, and I want to go to Whitefish, MT. I am towing a 25' TT. Which route would you suggest: Billings to Butte to Whitefish OR Billings to Great Falls to Whitefish? What are the pitfalls of the two routes. Of course, we want to see as much of Glacier NP as we can. Any help will be appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Tom

[jgrimes]

I read ur blog. Certainly sounds like u had a great trip. We're really fortunate to live in this part of the country. I'll have to check out some of the campgrounds u mentioned near Sandpoint. Always looking for new, fun places to go.

[punomatic]

jgrimes wrote:
Where are u at now, Tom? The weather here this week is supposed to be just about "perfect". Hope you're able to enjoy it in my neighborhood.

We left Kalispell and went to Sagle, ID, near Lake Pend Oreille. From there we went to Leavenworth, WA to see the Bavarian village, and now we are in Packwood, WA on the slopes of Mt. Rainier. 🙂 The weather is beautiful!

Check out my blog.

[jgrimes]

Where are u at now, Tom? The weather here this week is supposed to be just about "perfect". Hope you're able to enjoy it in my neighborhood.

[punomatic]

Thanks, jgrimes. We thoroughly enjoyed our trip all the way from Billings to Kalispell, where we are staying at the Rocky Mountain HI RV Park. This is another gem. The park is beautiful, and the staff are so helpful and friendly. They even let me wash my pickup.

We drove the Going to the Sun Road up to Logan Pass Visitors Center and back down again. Breathtaking! The building was closed because of a problem with batteries (??). They had it cordoned off, and a truck that looked a little like a fire engine had a big hose stretched into the building. We never found out any more about what that problem was, but we had an amazing, memorable day enjoying the sights.

Thanks again for your recommendation of the route from Billings. It couldn't have been more perfect. I love this forum! Happy travels.

[jgrimes]

Hope ur enjoying the trip. I'll have to stay at the deer lodge koa sometime. Sorry about the weather. On the plus side, the Going to the Sun Road in Glacier is now open the whole way.

[punomatic]

We ended up at the Deer Lodge KOA. It is small but the owner is charming and the park is quiet, with a beautiful river running along the western border. It suits us fine: full hookups, no cable, but the wi-fi is among the best we've encountered. We will then follow the route jgrimes recommended to Kalispell. Gonna stay here a couple of days first though.

[punomatic]

jgrimes wrote:
It's been several years, but I have stayed at Fairmont Hot Springs RV Park just west of Butte. Nothing fancy, but for an additional fee u could swim at the hot springs. Good way to end the day. There are also rv parks in deer lodge, but I have not stayed there.

Thanks, that's a great tip.

[jgrimes]

It's been several years, but I have stayed at Fairmont Hot Springs RV Park just west of Butte. Nothing fancy, but for an additional fee u could swim at the hot springs. Good way to end the day. There are also rv parks in deer lodge, but I have not stayed there.

[bobsallyh]

punomatic, we stayed a week there several years ago. We were in Helena the year before and drove thru Garrison and saw the park, took a ride thru, grassy, looked fairly good. As fulltimers we usually do no less than a week at a park. So the next season we pulled in off I-90 and took a week. There were some sites in the rear which looked OK. They put us out toward I-90 which was fine with us. Well some things raised their ugly head. First of all the sites were side-by-side, I park one way, you come in and park the opposite direction. Use the same power ped. etc. And they park you. My drivers side slide was going to be the near the ped so I got out my "slide stick" to make sure it would work. It would, but on the door side of the RV there was all sorts of room over to the next guy that even had his awning out. After the guy pulled into the spot beside us and he pushed his slide out, we could have passed a ham sandwich to each other thru the window. The first couple of days it was cool and no power problems. But then the temps went up and as RVers would pull in during the afternoon, fire up their AC the power dumped. We have a electric management system on our fiver, it kicked out due to below 107 volts. Shortly after, it kicked back on but for only about a minute. There was a motor home at the end of our row. I had noticed he had the same unit we do but it was portable on the ped. I saw him standing outside looking, so I walked down and asked him if his power dumped. "Yep", he said, "every afternoon it heats up and folks start coming in off the road". We later did laundry, my wife kept having to dump quarters in the dryer, it wasn't heating well due to the lack of power. Later that evening I was standing outside and a guy comes up and asks how I was doing. I said good but if the power would stay on, I'd be great. He said "I'm the owner and yes that is a problem but the power company won't sell me more power! I sure didn't jump off the turnip truck yesterday. Then we found out that if you pay by the day you pay extra for 50 amp. Since we paid a week the charge was the same as 30. Of course we haven't been back but have passed several times. Now I can't say if it is the same owner or not so it is "buyer beware"!

[punomatic]

Thanks guys. That is the info I needed. Looking at Riverfront RV park in Garrison. Any feedback?

[Corky12]

Definitely Butte. There is a lot of nothing between Billings and GF and GF and East Glacier.

[jgrimes]

U have numerous options. I would usually take the Interstate to garrison; head east on us 12 to Avon; go north mt141 to us 200; go west to mt 83. 83 will end at us 93 just south of kalispell. Mt83 is a beautiful drive with many mountain lakes and forest service campgrounds. Scenic drive and probably the quickest. Enjoy.