The beauty is endless

Day 1

Thursday June 18, 2025

Anaconda Sportsman’s Park to Lost Trail Hot Springs.

Stats: 58 miles. Temp: 78. Blue Sky (no typical stats because neither of us rode the whole day)

Breakfast was French toast, bacon, fresh raspberry yogurt and coffee. We were off and on the road about 9:45am. Hard to get a crew like this moving much earlier.

The Anaconda Sportsman’s campground on the Big Hole River (south of Wise River) is a no frills grassy campground. There are no hookups (water, electricity or sewer). They do have potable water to fill jugs that comes from a spring across the river. They are very kind and have remembered us every year. They have one vault toilet and I challenge you to find a more immaculately clean pit toilet, most pleasant vault toilet anywhere! A+ Anaconda!!

The morning winds were very, very light, barely noticeable. Everyone was in high spirits. The e- bikes were quickly out of sight and everyone riding at their own comfortable pace with short stops along the way. Quick pit stop in Wisdom at 25 miles then off to the BigHole Battlefield 10 miles further south and the uphill climb toward the continental divide. Lunch was at the battlefield parking lot.

After lunch Jim and I switched riding/driving. At this point you climb out of the BigHole River valley, out of the sagebrush and into the mountains. The wind had picked up and with the elevation climbing the last 15 miles to the top were more challenging than the first stretch. At the summit it’s all downhill to the Lost Trail Hot Springs Campground.

The ride through the Big Hole was breathtaking today! It doesn’t matter how many times I have been here it always takes my breath away! The sweeping views, the expanse of wide open rangeland… the river slow and mellow winding its way through the big valley. Closer to Wisdom the river is hard to find…it branches out into rivulets and a massive meadow. Acres of marshy area which delivers one thing this valley is famous for…. mosquitos… hordes of mosquitos! You can’t stand still long, they’re voracious.

Lost Trail Hot Springs Campground is a quirky, funny little place. It’s 6 miles down from the summit in a deep ravine filled with giant ponderosa pine trees. Big disappointment was the fact that the hot springs pool was not opened for the season yet. Tomorrow! They were just filling it when we arrived. Besides the campground, there are a bunch of little cabins, the owners place and what used to be a pizza restaurant and bar. That hasn’t been open for several years now to my knowledge. As you enter the pool area you are bombarded with rules signs. So many signs it’s hard to decide which ones to read. The less is more principle could be applied here. The owners are a strange bunch, grandma, son etc. Today the owner was gone and left a full time tenant in charge of our cabins and camping. I did not meet him myself but was told he was very odd. He had lots of holes in his clothes and had a pistol lying on the countertop! Needless to say that no one bitched about the closed pool… good choice to let some issues be left silent!

Dinner tonight was a drive over the border into Idaho to Gibbonsville maybe 20 miles south. The Chief Joseph Pass on the Idaho side is much longer than the Montana side. Several big impressive switchbacks for about 12 miles down into a deep river valley of the Northfork of the Salmon River. (Side note: famous for whitewater rafting). We eat at the cutest little Mexican restaurant called the Broken Arrow. It’s owned by a family with several generations of the family working there. Besides the very good Mexican food they have several flavors of homemade pies! It’s a real gem of a place. We randomly found it when our ride took us to the Lost Trail side for a couple of years. It’s now part of the tour to have dinner at Broken Arrow.

I’ve been told that anyone that wants to soak in the morning can come at 8am. Maybe a few in the caravan will take that opportunity. Mostly we’re looking forward to Jackson Hot Springs. It’s a bit less rustic and more conventional.