Us 2 mackinaw to Kalispell

We took that route in 2013. It was beautiful. Have a safe and enjoyable trip.

We took the ND thru MT section. Or some of ND anyway. It's a lonely road with few campgrounds, cell phone service only in the widely separated towns. The towns all have service stations and some sort of market.

I believe you'll have to depart Rt 2 and go south for boondocking. There are a long series of parks and recreation areas along the Missouri River. At the east end it is close to Rt 2 but goes south west from there. Ft Peck is one.

We actually plan to reverse the route from Bonner's Ferry ID thru to Michigan this summer.

Only into MN. Not much there.

Stew47

Here is a route map from freecampsites.net with LOTS of places to stay.

https://freecampsites.net/#!Mackinaw+City,+Michigan+49701,+USA~Kalispell,+Montana+59901,+USA&query=routeSearch&routeDistance=25&routeIndex=0&roundtrip=false

If you want to get away from interstates, Rt 2 is the way to go. I only boondocked at one campground.

Took 2 from Mackinaw to the Pacific in 2009, but stayed in campgrounds only. It was a great road except for the first 10 miles in Montana, which had been completely dig up in order to widen to 4 lanes. That was a single narrow track on bare dirt. Following a guide truck, and you didn’t dare deviate lest you sink in to the axle. I’m sure that section has been completed by now. Lots of quaint tiny towns along the way. Do it, it’s a great road.

HEY Stew, have taken that route a couple times, and actually much prefer it on a cross-country sojourn. If you have the time it gets even more beautiful beyond Kalispell meandering on to the West coast.
Happy camping!

Two things here:

1- I did not know that could do that. That will get bookmarked.

2- Believe them about limited (nearly non-existent) cell service.
This means that if you are using a smartphone for navigation and you have not preloaded the areas, you will have GOTZ.

Some years back, we were through those areas and even with a 3 watt cell repeater (booster), we were still at ZERO Bars a lot of the time.

Matt

We did US2 from Mackinaw to Williston ND last Sept. We were headed for Glacier but it caught on fire ad the campgrounds were evacuated, so we headed south from Williston. We had no issues with cell service on Verizon.

It was a relaxing drive, but the MN/ND part was pretty boring.



However, the drone of the road is broken up every 1/2 hour or so by a town. You can tell a town is coming because the speed limit goes down, usually only to 50. Unlike the interstates, you actually see towns. We had a lot of fun reading each town's motto on the "Welcome To..." sign.

ND has some great state parks, We stayed at Devil's Lake



and Lewis & Clark.



Fuel was available as every town along the way.

If you'll be stopping in Superior/Duluth, try to spend a few nights at Burlington Bay in Two Harbors. We didn't stay there but found it when we were exploring.

We stayed in Iron Mountain MI, Superior right next to the highway, then Bemidji MN, Devil's Lake and Lewis & Clark.

If you stop in Bemidji,



try Itasca SP and visit the headwaters of the Mississippi.

Hi Matt,

What i GOTZ?

If you have a Canadian cell phone there is a usable signal without a booster from Sault St Marie to Williston (and probably farther--I just have not driven that portion).

Matt_Colie wrote:


2- Believe them about limited (nearly non-existent) cell service.
This means that if you are using a smartphone for navigation and you have not preloaded the areas, you will have GOTZ.
Matt