Pintler Scenic Loop-Philipsburg, Montana

On our way home from Yellowstone I got the bright idea to make a stop at Anaconda. I'd not been there before and it is a scant six miles from I-90. I also, had been curious about the Pintler Scenic Loop. The stop required and overnight stay in order to work the "loop" in.

Finding an RV park was my first challenge. I soon found that there is not much choice in that department plus things are starting to  shut down in Montana as the tourists skedaddle. One place I tried, that was listed in the Montana Travel Planner was really a mobile home park and not at all the type of place we were interested in. Poor Clem (that's our Winnebago View) almost got her noggin knocked off. The manager told me to turn around in a tiny space that took us under a big willow.  After I had Shadow (that's the tow car) jacked knifed up against Clem's bumper I jumped out to see if we would clear the branches. I had stopped just in time. Another foot and Clem would have been clocked. The manager had to get up on the roof and pull branches up as we crept under the tree. Egad Gertrude! That was a close one.

We ended up at Fairmont Hot Springs. In addition to the hotel there is a nice RV park right next door. By the time we got set up that was it for me, poured myself a tall one and popped in a DVD.

Next morning off we went to do the Pintler Scenic Loop. It doesn't happen very often that the scenery in Montana lets me down but this was certainly one of those times. If you start from Anaconda the first thing you'll get to is the Georgetown Reservoir. It's not particularly pretty. It looks like a reservoir. Sadly, the trees are infested with some pestilence and the needles are turning an ugly telltale red. The future of this forest does not look at all good to me.

Georgetown Reservoir

 It also looks like, during the boom time, a number of people thought this might be the place to build upscale lodges. Many of those are for sale or have had construction just stopped.

The little town of Philipsburg is on this route and if you like to visit quaint little western towns it's about the only reason to take this drive. In fact, I have a suspicion that somewhere along the way some palms were greased to get the road designated as a "Scenic Route" so that people would come this way otherwise it might have died.

Philipsburg Wildlife

Philipsburg

Kaiser House-Philipsburg

There was very little on this route of interest to me. In fact I think route would be a better term than loop because if you take the "loop" you'll have a very long drive. I clocked about 135 miles with half of that on I-90. But, if you are going up or down I-90 and have time for the diversion you might want to check out Philipsburg, exit I-90 at Drummond if you are headed south or Anaconda if you are headed north. I definitely do not recommend the "loop".

If it's beautiful scenery you're looking for, ironically, you're much better  off staying right on I-90. The Clark Fork River runs along beside it and there is some awesome landscape to be seen between Drummond and Anaconda, I mean truly beautiful.

Now after all that carping, I must confess, I think I actually did get one very nice photograph from this excruciating excursion. It was a barn right along side the road about ten miles south of Philipsburg, see what you think.

Pintler Loop-Barn

So, that's my tale of the Pintler Loop. Now I have finally seen it I won't wonder about it anymore. And, I certainly won't be driving it again any time soon.

©Kinsey Barnard Photography

This is it!

Well, this is it. The last day to get ready for the big trip. Cementine (that's the RV) is packed to the gills, well not really we try to travel as lite as possible. Shadow (that's the tow car) is just waiting in the wings to get attached.

Being away for six months requires a lot of thought. I always worry that I have not thought of everything. But, going a long way toward helping to alleviate those concerns are my good neighbors Doug and Joan Ann who will be looking after the place and making sure I didn't forget anything. Amongst the myriad of things I love about where I live is the sense of community and having good neighbors that look out for one another. As they say in the credit card ad "priceless".

So, today we do those last minute things. One last pass by the dump. We have no garbage pick up where we live you have to haul it to the dump. Actually, I like this because you don't have to remember to put the can out and pay for it once a year through property taxes. For about $80 a year we can dump as much as we want whenever we want. Of course, our first priority is to make as little waste as we can. But, even so, I think it's quite a good deal.

Next up is a last visit to the Post Office. We don't get mail delivery either so we must go to town to collect it. This is a bit of a pain in the patookie because it makes us have to go to town (about 8 miles) when we really don't otherwise need or want to. But, if we don't go regularly the Post Office gets mad and crams the box so full you can't pull it out with a pair of pliers.

A quick stop at the grocers for bananas and a quart of milk and back to the ranch for the final push which much to my chagrin includes getting bookkeeping up to date so we can file whist on the road. Yuck! You gotta do what you gotta do but boy I don't do it without a proportionate amount of kicking and screaming.

The above photo is of our rig on the road. As you can see we are diminutive. But, this outfit is really easy for me to handle by myself and we are easy on the environment. Clem has a Mercedes diesel and gets 18+mpg whilst towing Shadow. Shadow gets 35 mpg whilst we zip up and down those roads less traveled looking for natural marvels to photograph.

When I bot Clem I had envisioned short trips around the Rockies and into Canada. Never occurred to me that I would want to do anything like six month at a stretch. It was with great trepidation that we did our first long trip last year on the Pacific coast. As it turned out we were snug as bugs in a rug. Clem has every convenience you can imagine. In fact, it's quite remarkable. We could have a bigger rig for less money but this compact little unit suits us to a tee. It's easy on everybody.

The gods willing we will be in Dillon, Montana tomorrow night. Not this summer but the one before we spent a couple of weeks in and around Dillon. It's a great place to explore. There are ghost towns and all manner of interesting things to see. Here are just a few shots that we got on that trip. Great place to shoot old buildings and barns.

If you should see us rumbling down the road be sure and honk!

Ciao for now,

Koty & Kinsey