Leaving Wall, we soon escaped the freeway and had a lovely drive through the Montana countryside. Green, rolling hills laced with occasional beautiful trees and rock formations. Sometimes part of the road was missing and we were driving on dirt and gravel, but that was just practice for the Canadian and Alaskan road construction to come.
This time we stopped at 7th Ranch RV Park at Garyowen, Montana near Little Bighorn National Battlefield. It was still hot and the weather was calling for storms so we were once again grateful to find a place with electric.
We were pleasantly surprised with this park. It sloped up a large hill giving us great views of the surrounding countryside and each site was decorated with beautiful rocks and some with driftwood as well. There was a short trail at the end of the campground going up the steep hill for an even better view. It sure was a good hike! Good exercise after a lot of driving.
Downsides to the park were driving a short stretch of very washboarded gravel road to reach it and the need to pay for full hookups if you wanted to dump. They have no dump station and charge $15 to dump, so it’s much cheaper to just pay the extra for full hookups, at least for an overnight. The park is on a hill, but the sewer connections were located uphill, unfortunately. Mosquitos also happened to be out in force while we were there, but I’m sure it’s just a taste of what’s to come as we move north.
We had toured the Battlefield some years earlier and were not going to take the time to visit again on this trip. Maybe we’ll do a refresh again in the future. It is very interesting and educational.
We always watch out for the weather, and tonight called for rain and potentially bad storms the next morning. Should that be the case, we would stay in place and not drive. It did rain a lot that night. However, in the morning, the rain stopped but they were still calling for storms later in the day. It looked like we could get out ahead of the storms and make it to Great Falls. So off we went.
Day 5
Miles: 315*
Driving time: 5:30
Roads: Highway with some freeway
Overnight: 7th Ranch RV Park
Weather: Sunny and hot (63°/91°)
Total miles: 1159*
* Since our motorhome is our only vehicle, mileage includes side trips.