Clark Canyon Reservoir, Montana

July 4, 2022

From Ennis, it was a fairly short drive to get to Clark Canyon Reservoir, and it was scenic as usual. 

Our site on Clark Canyon Reservoir

Another pretty drive

We had to take care of some business along the way: dumping garbage, dumping waste water, getting fresh water, and filling up the fridge/pantry. 

Lets spend some time talking about those. (Skip past the next few paragraphs if you really would rather be spared the details).  

Garbage: Our last site at Ennis lake did not have garbage cans, so when we went to town we would bring our garbage with us and dump it at the county dump (conveniently located outside of town).  We didn't want to try to get in and out of the dump with our trailer, so our final disposal of the garbage ended up happening at a rest area trash can along the way to our next campsite.  

Fresh water and waste water: Fresh water and waste water pretty much go together.  Our freshwater tank holds about 100 gallons. We have gray and black holding tanks (gray for sinks/shower and black for toilet) that hold about 60 gallons each.  Normally when we are in developed campgrounds, there will be a dump station to dump our tanks and water spigots to fill the fresh water.  However, when at remote campgrounds there often aren't these facilities, so we have to find somewhere else to take care of this business. The place we planned on to dump and fill for free along our route ended up being out of order, so we needed to find somewhere else on the fly.  We found a local campground that would let us use their facilities, and a quick visit there lightened our wallet by $10.  We left with empty and full tanks and were on our way again. (Of course, we arrived with empty and full tanks, but what started out empty became full and vice versa 😉.)

Groceries:   We have generally been restocking the fridge and pantry about once a week when we are in a town.  A stop in Dillon at a Safeway enabled us to check off this task.  The good part about shopping on travel days is that we can park our refrigerator and pantry right in the parking lot, so when we leave the store we can immediately put everything away.  One of the biggest downsides of visiting remote/less populated places is the lack of "normal" grocery stores.  The Safeway we stopped at in Dillon was small by the standards of most suburban stores, but pretty well stocked (albeit a bit expensive due to its remote location). 

Ok, back to our regular program...

Upon arrival at Clark Canyon Reservoir, we decided to go for one of the free designated camp grounds instead of just parking randomly on the beach or along sketchy dirt roads (which is allowed here--and some did just that).  After touring the first campground, we determined that we didn't like anything available and moved onto the second campground where we found a fine spot that overlooked the lake. It had a little covered shelter, but we didn't end up using it.  (Just for reference, there were six free campgrounds scattered around the lake, so there was little risk of not finding a spot.) There were signs to beware of rattlesnakes, but we never saw any.

Our campsite

Tuesday afternoon and into the evening was quite windy. (That's a bit of an understatement. We're guessing the winds were around 50 mph winds--it was really very windy.)

This picture probably doesn't show it well, but the waves were quite substantial on the reservoir.

Amazingly, our deck roof weathered the wind just fine and did not show any signs of collapse. Rick has always thought the roof was engineered to be very sturdy and was not surprised at all that it didn't collapse.  Julie was not quite as confident. She had agreed with him about its sturdiness at the time of build, but it was a little nerve-wracking to actually put it to the test. Good news is, she won't be as tempted to close up the ramp door at the first hint of a storm anymore!

Wednesday was sunny and pleasant and a good day for a bike ride around the reservoir (well - not quite all the around as there are no bike-friendly roads along one side).  We went counterclockwise this day, with the intention of going the opposite direction another day. There were less gravel road spurs than we were hoping for to explore, but it still turned out to be a nice ride (a little over 25 miles).

As usual Rick took photospheres while Julie did the real work of composing photos 😀.

Thursday started with a stroll around the trails and hills right around our camp as well as picking up trash left along the beach.  This area of Montana has striking beauty not only in the large scale mountains but also in the small scale flowers that you only notice up close.

A cactus bloom!

We've decided to pick up a new hobby--cleaning up trash left behind by previous campers

The stroll ended up being about 2 miles, and Rick filled two Menards bags full of mostly beer cans, broken bottles, and random plastic bits of junk.

Rick took this photosphere at the top of the hill near camp:

The big outing for the day was taking a ride the opposite way around the reservoir towards the dam and other campgrounds, which totaled up to 16 miles.  It also seemed like a good time to see if it was even possible to ride all the way around the reservoir (answer is no - you run into a stream).

We stopped by the Lewis and Clark turnout where they had signs and displays for "Camp Fortunate"-- a camp where Lewis and Clark met up with members of the Shoshone who provided them with needed horses and supplies. Sacagawea was also reunited with her people at that time. Of course, the precise location for Camp Fortunate is at the bottom of the reservoir which was created by flooding the canyon in the 1960s.

Evening brought a gorgeous sunset. Julie had a hard time whittling down the photos to just these.

Friday, Saturday and Sunday turned out to be relaxation days where we just hung out, caught up on some internet tasks, worked on next year's travel schedule, did a few minor chores, took a few strolls around the area, and generally just took it easy.  Being a holiday weekend, the campground did fill up a bit (still not full), and there were quite a few families playing in the water, taking kayaks and paddleboards out, and playing in the sand.  

Mixed in with the sunshine, there were periods of weather moodiness, including a couple of thunderstorms. It was fun watching the rather dramatic changing weather over the reservoir and surrounding mountains. Once again, it was hard to limit the number of photos to include here. The lighting was stunning as the sun would peek out amidst really dark storm clouds.

We did our own little cookout celebration on July 4th with grilled Italian sausage with peppers and onions and grilled rosemary garlic potatoes. We really enjoyed celebrating here at Clark Canyon Reservoir, although we did miss being with family and friends.

Enough grilled potatoes to feed more than us, but Rick will enjoy the leftovers.

A couple of last shots before we move on:

And a few more sunset shots on our last night:

Next up...Idaho!

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