Hike With NITRO

CDT Trail Towns:  Yellowstone National Park

I am frequently asked about town stops on the Continental Divide Trail.  There are so many options that hikers in the planning stages typically want to get as much input in regards to trail towns as possible.  To this end, I’ve created my take on CDT trail towns.  This is in no way meant to replace Yogi’s CDT Handbook (and in the text I reference things she has said in her book and maps she provides).  Yogi is a friend, I used and loved her handbook so visit her website and see if her Handbook is for you.  Without further ado…CDT trail towns presented in a south bound order.

Welcome to Wyoming!!!

Old Faithful Village, WY:  First things first…the PO doesn’t take ATM/Debit Cards (or at least they didn’t when I was there), so don’t expect to buy stamps and get cash back…doesn’t work here.  Also, lodging here is pretty unrealistic.  You might be able to score a room but it will probably be pricey.  Expect that you will have to hike out at least a few miles to a campsite. 

Getting a campsite and a permit can be tough.  Be patient with them in the Backcountry office.  I had a new volunteer and she was trying to be very helpful with her limited knowledge.  We calculated a 30mile day and then realized it was a 42 mile day but since we were a day away from the backcountry office when we realized we got to Heart Lake, pleaded our case to the Ranger (who was very nice) and she gave us permission to camp at a vacant site at Heart Lake.  We had a permit but it was not conducive to staying to the campsites and since we told her we would hike on and try to make it if she didn’t have a site, she worked really hard to help us.  On the flip side, I know people who didn’t have as good an experience with the same Ranger.  Trying to follow the rules and pleading your case may work.  But I found that everyone was very helpful in Yellowstone. 

Side note, you are allowed to swim/bathe/soak in coldwater streams that have hot spring empting into them as was explained to me by the Heart Lake Ranger.  She asked me if we soaked in Witch Creek (I think that’s the name) on the way into Heart Lake.  I told her “no, I didn’t think we were allowed to be in them.”  She told me that we had to avoid the hot pools but that open, flowing streams with hot water mixed in were ok.  So factor that in when hiking toward Heart Lake.  It’s right off the trail so be appropriate as it’s not too far from a road and kids may be hiking in the area. 

Grant Village, Yellowstone NP, WY:  I went to Grant Village in 2006 to camp with Skittles and Matti.  It was pretty spread out and far from the road but you could probably get a ride to it from either Old Faithful or where the CDT crosses the South Entrance Road.  I remember enjoying the shower there. 

I am frequently asked about town stops on the Continental Divide Trail.  There are so many options that hikers in the planning stages typically want to get as much input in regards to trail towns as possible.  To this end, I’ve created my take on CDT trail towns.  This is in no way meant to replace Yogi’s CDT Handbook (and in the text I reference things she has said in her book and maps she provides).  Yogi is a friend, I used and loved her handbook so visit her website and see if her Handbook is for you.  Without further ado…CDT trail towns presented in a south bound order.

My next stop was Leadore, ID:  I loved Leadore.  I ate at the Velvet Elk (used to be Deb’s Sagebrush Café) and stayed at the City Park for something like $5 plus 3 for the shower.  It was fine.  It’s a short walk from town, north, toward Salmon.  The resupply here is pretty bad.  You can pick up a few things (snacks for while you are in town) and you might be able to make it work but send yourself some resupply or be prepared to hitch to Salmon. 

If you meet Roberta the Librarian, tell her I said hello…such a great person!  I didn’t go to Yogi’s “sorta store”.  That’s really the name of it and it creeped me out in ‘06 when I drove by so I didn’t even bother walking up there to check it out.  Here is a hint if you want to do laundry, on the North East side of town you’ll see the “Homestead Motel” and the “Homestead Apartments”.  The Motel is slightly north of the Apartments.  In front of the Apartments, there is a small building…it’s a laundry place.  Not sure if you are supposed to use it or not but we did (no signs posted that I saw). 

Lima, MT:  I had a good time in Lima.  We had a good crowd, WILDCAT and I got the last room available.  If you carry a cell phone and you want a room, call the Motel from the Ridge you’ll be walking for the entire day before you get to the road.  Also, you might, might, might be able to get cell reception on the road walk to the interstate.  If you get thru (Mike) will pick you up.  If you can’t get him, you can walk the mile or two (not sure what it is) up to Monida, use the Pay phone and Mike will get you.  Peat’s grill place was good, Jan’s was good.  I had a nice time in Lima.

Ok, I took an alternate route here.  I walked to Monida and then road walked to the Red Rock’s Wildlife Preserve.  I heard the section from Lima to Sawtelle/Mack’s Inn or to West Yellowstone was a real bummer so we decided to go to a bird sanctuary (Red Rock Lake I think).  It was great.  We got great trail magic at the preserve, cokes, beer, and pizza from a guy who worked there and were told about a campsite that’s free and had great drinking water.  Only draw back were the mosquitoes…they were pretty bad…good water though.  The ranger at the preserve even told us we didn’t have to purify it (have you ever met a ranger that said that?).  Finishing that road walk, we stopped at a mobile home/R.V. park and got sodas and ice cream.  I would guess that this was about 7 or so miles north of Sawtelle Resort. 

Sawtelle Resort, ID:  I stayed at the Resort (it was my birthday and we did 28 miles on my 29^th b-day).  We ate at the Island Park Village restaurant (the others were closed by the time we got situated).  I resupplied at the Robin’s Roost (I think, it’s only 38 miles or so to Yellowstone).  I think I did laundry and went in the hot tub at the resort. 

Mack’s Inn, ID:  I walked here the next morning (leisurely after check out) and went to the café, went to the PO, did my business there, went back to the café, ate (they were a bit slow so I ran to the PO in between ordering and eating), packaged some stuff, walked back to the PO and left town.  It was a short day but nice.  Depending on your schedule you should call Yellowstone, you may need to obtain permission (they issue you a permit but you don’t have to pick it up) to camp at one of the sites in the park but trail north of Old Faithful and the back country office.  You also might not need to do this.  When scheduling, keep in mind that there is no camping at Old Faithful and getting a room is tough and expensive.  Plan to hike at least a few miles to a campsite once you get to Old Faithful. 

I am frequently asked about town stops on the Continental Divide Trail.  There are so many options that hikers in the planning stages typically want to get as much input in regards to trail towns as possible.  To this end, I’ve created my take on CDT trail towns.  This is in no way meant to replace Yogi’s CDT Handbook (and in the text I reference things she has said in her book and maps she provides).  Yogi is a friend, I used and loved her handbook so visit her website and see if her Handbook is for you.  Without further ado…CDT trail towns presented in a south bound order.

Choices, choices…Anaconda or Butte?  I chose Anaconda, MT:  but before you get to Anaconda, you hit Warm Springs, MT:  I had a great time at Uncle Buck’s…it’s not creepy at all.  There were 10 of us, drinking at 11 am and eating mozzarella sticks.  Good times.  Hydrate because it’s a long road walk to Anaconda.  Anaconda, MT:  in 2007, I got trail magic and had some hiker friend’s sister pick me up and take me to her house (in the next town over).  In 2006, I did some trail magic of my own and stayed at the Trade Winds Motel.  It was ok, old, but clean enough.  Go to the pizza place (Stageline Pizza), they heard what I was doing and gave me free bread sticks.  The Albertson’s and Safeway are at opposite ends of town and the Safeway is on the way out of town so use that nugget of info and plan accordingly. 

Butte, MT:  I didn’t go to Butte but Matti (2006…Speedo was his trail name) did and he seemed to think it was a fine stop.  Some other hikers I know, went to Anaconda and hitched to Butte on their zero to catch a movie.  Butte seemed spread out when I drove thru there in 2006.

Talk about choices:  Lost Trail/Chief Joseph Pass.  From here you have 5 choices.  On my thru hike, I went to Darby, MT but I’ve been to all 5.  I’ll run them down as I see it. Darby, MT:  this is where I went on my thru hike.  I had been there in 2006 while sneaking up on my hiking friends.  Darby is fairly compact (especially if you stay where I did) and has everything I need in a town.  I stayed at the Travellers Rest Cabins both times.  They gave me a tiny discount for being a hiker (with a hiker in 06).  Not sure if they put in their hostel…they were doing the renovations on their own and it wasn’t a top priority.  People’s Market was okay…not the best resupply but far from the worst…I got plenty of food there but I vaguely remember not quite getting everything I wanted and having to make a few substitutions to my normal regimen.  Watch out for logger days, held on the 3^rd weekend of July.  It can be tough to get services then.  Overall, I liked Darby a lot and the people were nice.

Sula, MT:  If you are looking to just pick up a maildrop and eat a breakfast or lunch, this might be the stop for you.  It’s the closest to the trail and doesn’t have a lot of things to spend money on.  It looks like a rest stop/gas station on the road.  It has some lodging and camping, laundry, even showers and a place to send your package (this is not the PO but the store…follow Yogi’s directions). 

North Fork, ID:  Not a bad option either.  Has a PO (good for outgoing mail/postcards, buying stamps), showers, laundry, a tiny bit of resupply and a restaurant.  The restaurant seemed to be closed a fair bit in 2006 so if you are planning this as your stop and you want some town food, call them before you send your package to get restaurant times. 

Wisdom, MT:  Wisdom is cute (well, small in a cute way), had good food at the Big Hole Restaurant (that’s a great name) and was friendly and it has a PO.  It’s very small and I don’t know if you could resupply there…might be best to send a package.  Not a ton of traffic on that side of the highway but it could work.

Salmon, ID:  I had a great time in Salmon in 2006.  I had a car so that helped.  It’s a bit spread out depending on where you end up staying.  I stayed at the Wagons West Motel and it was 1000 degrees and the air conditioner sucked and we had 6 of us in there.  The next night we went to the Trails End Motel…there were 2 of us (well, 2 rooms of 2), the air worked great.  Much better!  Trails End seemed to be much closer to stuff, Wagon’s West seemed far away.  This town is very hot during the day but the people were nice…I heard that the supermarket is not open on Sundays but I do remember thinking it was a pretty good market.

The Lodge at Many Glacier

I am frequently asked about town stops on the Continental Divide Trail.  There are so many options that hikers in the planning stages typically want to get as much input in regards to trail towns as possible.  To this end, I’ve created my take on CDT trail towns.  This is in no way meant to replace Yogi’s CDT Handbook (and in the text I reference things she has said in her book and maps she provides).  Yogi is a friend, I used and loved her handbook so visit her website and see if her Handbook is for you.  Without further ado…CDT trail towns presented in a south bound order.

Arrival-Montana-Glacier National Park

I arrived in East Glacier in time to get the shuttle to Many Glacier.  I got my permit in Many Glacier at the Ranger Station.  I was going to camp in Many Glacier that night and get the shuttle to the border the next morning but it was yucky out.  My next plan was to get a cheap cabin at the Swift current Motor in and leave a resupply package there but in 2007 it didn’t open until the 17^th so instead, I stayed at the expensive (but on my Dad’s tab) Many Glacier Hotel.  The Ranger (I had an awesome Ranger, Mark W.) let me keep my resupply package at the Ranger Station.

The next morning I caught the shuttle to the border…it was a thru hiker party.

Many Glacier, MT:  Spread out and potentially expensive but if you’ve just spent two days in rain and cold and it’s still raining, then staying at Swiftcurrent might be nice.  In 2007 the price for a cottage without a bath was $50.  Depending on the time of year you are hiking, you might want to stop in at the Lodge on the walk into “town”.  Have the front desk call the Swiftcurrent to see if they have rooms and to see if the restaurant it open.  It’s a little bit of a walk to find out that it’s not open yet.  If the Swiftcurrent restaurant is closed, The Many Glacier Lodge has a restaurant and a bar (eating at the Bar is cheaper).  The Lodge also has a large fire place in the lobby so if you show up soaking wet, it’s a good place to dry off before you get lunch/dinner.  We ate lunch (we only hiked 8 miles that day) at the Lodge and the Swiftcurrent restaurant opened for dinner so we ate there for dinner. 

Two Medicine, MT:  I think I ate 8 hotdogs for dinner there.  They were good.  You could hike 2 different routes that meet back up right before you cross the bridge to get to Two Med.  I took the shorter route.  I am glad I did, there was a ton of snow the other way (Dawson’s Pass). 

At the store, you could buy dinner and snacks for the 10 miles to East Glacier here.  I can’t remember if I did that or not.  It was a decent store for a tourist trap and like I said, only 10 miles to East Glacier.  As for camping here…let me tell you the hiker/biker sites are sub-optimal…ok they suck (I don’t typically use that word but it pretty much sums it up).  They are all really gravelly.  The better option (in 2006 this worked, but not in 2007) is to talk with the camp hosts (in 2006, they were nice…not too friendly in 2007) and if you are with a good number of hikers, ask if you can use the group site.  It is much, much nicer camping. 

East Glacier, MT:  I rather liked East Glacier.  I stayed at the Backpacker’s Inn (behind Serrano’s) one time and at a hotel (maybe the Circle R) that was recently upgraded.  They were definitely different experiences.  I think the Backpacker’s Inn could be a ton of fun with other hikers (it was in 2006) and really convenient to Serrano’s Mexican Restaurant (eat there) and the Glacier Park Trading Post (store) and the Trails End Saloon/Tavern where hikers have been known to live it up in the past.  I sent a resupply package to the Trading Post but also bought a few things there since they held my package.  They were super nice when I was there.

What did you think about Glacier National Park?