In the middle of August 2024 we started out on our trip to go to a boat canal trip on a Leboat rental boat on the Rideau canal in eastern coast of Canada with our Nordic Tug friends Vince and Pam in mid September. We then will go down south from there to Florida to visit friends.
Here is a Google MY Maps of Leg-1 of our route from Milpitas CA to Smith Falls Ontario where we start the Rideau Canal boat rental.
Milpitas, CA
Campground Rye Patch State Recreation Area
National Forest Campground Thomas Canyon Campground, Spring Creek, NV
Harvest Host Diamond P GrassRoots Bison, 5801 S Old Hwy 91, McCammon, ID 83250
National Forest Dispersed Camping US-26, Irwin, ID 83428, USA
National Forest Dispersed Camping sites Ashton-Flagg Ranch Rd, Moran, WY 83013, USA
Buffalo Bill State Park – Lake Shore Campground, North Fork Highway, Cody, WY
National Forest Open Camping Forest Rd 403, Buffalo, WY 82834
Devils Tower National Monument
Spearfish City Campground, SD
NOTE: Google My Maps only allows A to J locations in directions soyou have to start a new directions tab which restarts lettering at A when you reach J. Therefor lettering restarts at B below.
10619 Spearfish Canyon Lodge at Roughlock Falls Rd, Lead, SD 57754, USA
13201 US-16A, Custer, SD 57730, USA
24785 Brave Bull Rd, Belvidere, SD 57521, USA
25497 485th Ave, Garretson, SD 57030, USA
N Shore Scenic Dr, Two Harbors, MN 55616, USA
114 SW W 8th Ave, Grand Marais, MN 55604, USA
1550 King Rd, Thunder Bay, ON P7K 1L7, Canada
30 Pinewood Dr, Wawa, ON P0S 1K0, Canada
Trans-Canada Hwy, Batchawana Bay, ON P0S 1A0, Canada
Milpitas CA to Rye Patch State Recreation Area Nevada 8/20/2024
Our first day out we made about 360 miles in about 6 hours, to Rye Patch State Recreation Area. Patty did a good job picking the State campground where we got a site right next to the river on the outflow of the dam which was 15′ or so above the water which makes for a nice view. Did have a huge invasion of gnats, that some how got in to the camper in huge numbers, but where not biting so where just annoying more than anything
Rye Patch State Recreation Area To Thomas Canyon Campground 8/21-23
Our next stop was Thomas Canyon Campground in Spring Creek, NV which is about 200 miles NE of Rye Patch. This is a National Forest campground and this one did not disappoint with great views and many hiking trails.
We stayed two nights so we would have time to take a long hike the second day.
Easy drive to get there but there where many slow downs due to one of the two lanes being closed for construction in 4-5 areas. We arrived at the camp ground around 2:00 and pretty easily found a camp site but many where reserved. You have to read the camp site signs closely because the multiple date ranges reserved have peoples names above them and some of them have “open” instead of a name which we missed to start. The camp ground is at around 7,000 ft so nice and cool at night but a little warm in the camper during the day since in the sun. This was great though for the solar panels where we got 100% charged every day from the panels.
The next day we drove the camper down to the end of the Lamoille Canyon Scenic Byway which continues past the campground. We then hiked the Lamoille Creek Trail at the end of the parking lot up two miles to Lamoille Lake. This is a beautiful hike with great views of the Ruby Mountains along the trail. We took the main trail, which was more shaded, up which is two miles and returned via the Stock Trail on the way back which is 1 1/2 miles.
Thomas Canyon Campground To Diamond P Grass Roots Bison Ranch 8/23-24
We headed back out and East on 80 for our next stop at the Diamond P Grass Roots Bison Ranch, 5801 S Old Hwy 91, McCammon, ID. This is a harvest Host Member site where the owners let you stay free if you purchase some of the goods they produce. We usually stay at these places for our over night stops when possible. Folks where real nice and we picked up some bison ground meat and some steaks for $40. Burgers where excellent and plan to try the steaks soon.
We had some severe south winds kick up from the south for the next couple days. Was nice when we where heading North with a 30 mph pushing from the south got great gas mileage at over 12 mpg. Our route would head us North, then NE the East and back too North. Going NE, or even worse East, we really got pushed from the side and made driving very tiring.
We headed out NE on US-80 again then took a right on US-26 which took us SE down to National Forest Dispersed Camping located right past the Riverside Park Campground. This was a one night stay but was right on the Snake River with no one else camping close by and was very nice.
Patty and Holly at National Forest Dispersed Camping Snake River
For this trip we purchased the new StarLink Mini dish. It has been working great attached to the roof of the camper at the rear passenger corner. When we pulled in at this site was thinking StarLink may not work since trees where shading the camper but it worked great. See pic below looking straight up the corner of camper where dish is and dish reported no blockages.
StarLink View Of Sky
Riverside Park Campground NFS Dispersed Camping To Ashton-Flagg Ranch Rd, Moran, WY NFS Dispersed Camping 8/24-25
We headed South on US-26 and took a left on US-89 heading North up towards Yellowstone National Park. We wanted a place for an over night stay before heading in to the park so along the way Patty found this dispersed camping spot. This one was different than most dispersed camping in that the NFS has set up six spots with 2-4 camping sites ate each site with vault toilets. We went past site-1 and looked at sites 2-6 but they where all full. We got lucky and found an empty spot back at site-1 which was OK but not spectacular.
Ashton-Flagg Ranch Rd Camp Site
Ashton-Flagg Ranch Rd To Buffalo Bill State Park Campground 8/25-26
Ashton was an over night spot to stay close to Yellowstone so we could take most of the day visiting geysers and viewing the Yellowstone canyon before our next camping spot at Buffalo Bill campground.
We headed out Ashton-Flagg Ranch Rd/Grassy Lake Rd toward Grassy Lake Rd turned left onto US-191 N/US-287 and headed up to Yellow Stone.
After visiting the hot geysers and the canyon we turned right onto US-20 to go above lake Yellowstone and head east to Buffalo Bill State Park Campground.
This is a nice State Park right with camp sites right on the reservoir which Holly took a nice swim in. We got in a bit late from our Yellowstone visit and got up early and left the next morning so was a short visit here.
Buffalo Bill State Park Campground To Forest Rd 403, Buffalo, WY 8/26-27
In the morning we got an early start to try to make some miles east and ended up only going 168 miles down US-14 E/US-16 E/US-20 E when we started to see some nice forest roads. We noticed Forest Rd 403 on the right side of road that headed up to a nice grassy ridge, so we went up it about half a mile and camped on the ridge over looking a nice big grassy area. We did notice a trailer on the way in but nobody was around to be seen so a perfect isolated spot for an overnight stay. did get very windy at night while sleeping enough so that we pulled the passenger side slide out in to keep the awning on it from getting ripped.
Forest Rd 403 To Devils Tower National Monument Campground 8/27-28
The next day we headed out toward Devils Tower Campground but hit some grass fire areas on I90-E along the way that was very smokey and hard to see for driving. The grass fires where still smoldering on each side of the road for 10 mile or so. The smoke lasted about 1/2 hour before we broke out to clean air again.
When we got to Devils Tower Campground we found a great site with a nice view of the Devils Tower at our camp spot. We first went and looked at the prairie dogs next to the campground and that was all the prairie dogs I need to see for the rest of the trip! There not very exciting…..
Devils Tower Campground To Spearfish City Campground 8/28-30
Out of Devils Tower we went onto WY-110 W, right onto WY-24W then took I-90 E toward City of Spearfish Entering South Dakota. Spearfish is a nice town that seems to cater to the motorcycle crowd like most towns up in the Black Hills. Spearfish City Campground is really nice and I would highly recommend it for a couple day’s stay to explore the area. Lightly wooded with nice grass on the widely spaced sites. We found a great spot in the first come first serve area, no electric, with no body close to us beside a babbling brook that was super cool. This was on Thursday afternoon and little did we know that the place was going to get packed with all the cyclists doing the Dakota Five-O off road bike race. The race is staged and start/ends at the camp ground so everybody packed in with there tents around us. While we went out in truck had a guy pitch his tent five feet from our picnic table and stake out 50′ on the other side for all his buddies coming over the next few day’s. Talked to the guy, Josh, about his motives but we parted friendly. All in all the bikers where a good crowd so all turned out just fine in the end.
We took the camper off of the truck a really nice hike on Bath Tub trail. Had to cross the stream 10-12 times to get up to the bath tub which was not allways that easy rock hopping each time. would be easier to just wear water shoes and get your feet wet.
The next day we went and visited Deadwood. We watched the excellent HBO series Deadwood years ago so just had to go for a visit. Pretty much just a tourist town now but there is an open bar every 20′ or so along the main drag, makes it easy to drop in for a drink many times along the fairly short 1/4 mile walk as you go along.
Spearfish City Campground To Spearfish Canyon Lodge, SD 8/30-9/31
We went just a few miles south to stay overnight in Spearfish Canyon Lodge which is located next too Roughlock Falls. The falls are close by and easy to walk too from the lodge. Lodge had laundry room so we could do laundry and take an easy day off from camping.
Spearfish Canyon Lodge To Grace Coolidge Campground Custer, SD 9/31-10/1
