Last Stretch before Crossing into Canada!

Last week we left off with the decision of whether to spend more time in Minnesota or continue on. We decided to continue on to have most of June to travel slowly north through Canada before crossing into Alaska for July and August. So it was time to head towards Montana, our intended border crossing!

With a long stretch, we decided to trial run our northern expedition plan of slow days, 200 mile-ish days to allow for random stops, and boondocking overnights, so we sat down with the road atlas, camping apps and Our Travel Planner to figure out the details.

We still wanted to see the Mississippi headwaters at Itasca State Park, so our first stop was at Camp Itasca, just outside the state park, and our last with full hookups. We arrived with plenty of time to set up and go explore the headwaters. It sure looks different from the Mighty Mississippi River we are used to in the southern United States!

The next day, we set off for Fargo, North Dakota and the 4E Winery, a favorite Harvest Hosts of ours from a couple of years ago. Along the way, we found a Tractor Supply Co. with a large parking area and dog wash station for a much overdue bath for Luna, then continued on. Even though they were closed, we were able to order a couple bottles of our favorite wine, Harvest Moon, and were luckily set up before the 40+ MPH winds and storms got to us. It was a windy night, but mostly past us by morning.

We continued our journey into North Dakota. At our friend’s suggestion, we stopped at the World’s Largest Buffalo Monument, a free/donations only stop just off I-64 in Jamestown. We had passed it a couple of years ago, too late to go back, so our friends told us to make sure we stop! It was neat to explore the town, see the statue, and grab the geocaches on property!

It was a cool stop, so we ended up with a late lunch meeting our friends at Cracker Barrel in Bismarck, but they did tell us to stop there! Luckily, we had plenty of time since we ended up visiting for almost 4 hours, and we dodged the crazy weather!

That night, we found a great wild camping spot on iOVerlander at the Deer Crossing display along the Enchanted Highway. What an incredible stop! A large, very level parking area and the cows in the adjacent pasture were keen on meeting us and hung around for a bit.

The next day we crossed into Montana. We found a hike at the Painted Canyon Visitors Center in Theodore Roosevelt National Park that had room for the rig so we could set Luna up with the air conditioner and explore. It was a 0.9 mile hike, but moderate due to a nearly 300 foot descent into the canyon. We were treated to great weather and minimal people. Since it had rained recently, we also saw lots of deer and bison track, and even found a bear track along the way. Glad we only saw tracks!

Our stop that night was in a small town on the reservation called Wolf Point. They had a Harvest Hosts at the Wolf Point Museum available and, low and behold, we had stayed there before! Our last visit the museum had closed, so we were happy to get there to tour this time. What a great display of local history and what life was like for settlers in this area. We learned a lot and enjoyed talking to the two gentleman manning the place when we arrived. We also talked to someone at the gas station that told us we needed to plan a stop at Fort Peck on our way west, so we added it to the list.

On travel day FOUR, we continued across Montana. We stopped at Fort Peck Lake Recreation Area and Interpretive Center, an Army Corp of Engineers park and amazing reservoir with more shoreline than California and the claim that this region of North America is the only one in the world where T. Rex skeletons are found! We explored the museum, found the dump station and potable water station (all FREE!) and enjoyed a picnic lunch before continuing on.

Our stop for the night was at Purely Goatique, a Harvest Hosts! We were on a ridge overlooking a river and poised to have great views of the Northern Lights expected that night (that the clouds ended up hiding from us). But the hosts were amazing people we chatted with for ages, and the animals were amazing. We parted ways with some great photos, fresh chicken eggs and some goat’s milk lavender lotion.

The next morning we set off on our final travel day of the week, aiming for Malmstrom Air Force Base Gateway FamCamp in Great Falls, Montana. We had been through before and new this would be a great staging spot for wrapping up in the lower 48. We were able to get last minute supplies, laundry, a vet appointment for Luna’s health certificate for Alaska, and prep for the border crossing next week. We also got some time to rest and reflect on our already amazing travel season.

It was nice to have had a full travel week that didn’t leave us exhausted, racing past interesting points of interest, or broke! Open Roads stops were not along the highway route, but we still found decent fuel with GasBuddy. This was the first time in our travels since 2022 that we haven’t raced across the country and, I have to say, it was enjoyable! We were able to get family time, explore, camp on a budget, see beautiful places and get blogging and school work done (Luther decided to take Driver’s Ed this summer).

Now to plan the next step–what we can and cannot take across the border into Canada, where we want to explore and camp, and what the weather holds.

I’ll be breaking down miles and spending over on Facebook/Instagram tomorrow (I’ll do the same each week), so if you’re curious about the money & miles stats, be sure to check those out!

We’ll see you next week to share our border crossing and if we over or under-prepared, as well as the journey details!

If you aren’t familiar with Harvest Hosts, it’s a camping membership that allows you to overnight at local businesses all over the country for a small fee. We’ve stayed at wineries, breweries, restaurants, museums, farms, drive-in theaters and many more, all as part of our membership. If you are interested, you can sign up and earn us credit towards next year’s membership at no cost to you using our Harvest Host Referral Link (Boondockers Welcome is a part of this and if you like golf, chat with me before signing up)! You can also check out other ways to save on our savings page at https://barnesonmove.com/savings/

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