The wife and I have had a trip to Idaho planned for a few months, but with unexpected bills and the scamdemic going on, its been touch and go whether it was going to happen.

The original plan was to stay in Idaho. Then it changed a bit and we will be going into WA and OR and up to CdA. I was going to backtrack  to Boise, but I dont want to spend more time in WA/OR then i have to, and it dawned on me today that I could loop around through Montana, down into SE Idaho and back over to Boise and avoid the western states.

Just wanted to see if you guys had places to visit along the 90 from CdA to Butte (Helena?) whichever one makes more sense and the 15 from Butte area heading to Idaho Falls? Also the weather conditions for a rental car and novice snow/ice driver? I'm assuming there is some type of DOT website for road closures, road conditions and whatnot as well?

Just looking for any info that will help. I should have been researching this shit awhile ago, but I'm a fucking retard, so here we are...Thanks for any help!

There is a MTDOT App for your phone.  Here is the website: MTDOT
Typically road closures would be the passes, like Monida and Lookout.

Time it right and you can hit CW NW2 . Sad I am missing West this year and definitely won't make NW2. Let me know if you end up in Kalispell.

Thanks, i will grab that, figured it would be that easy, just trying to do a thousand things at once.



That would be awesome, but that'd be a long time to travel with my rifle. Not even sure when it is, but im sure the wife would love it.... We are meeting a friend of hers in oregon and unfortunately staying there for 2 nights, so i dont think we will have the time to make it to kalispell, otherwise i would hit you up! It looks too far to be able to make a casual meetup on the way as well, which sucks. Hopefully we will be making the move north soon and it will be easier.

If you are into geography and the Great Falls of the Missouri in Great Falls and also Lewis and Clark interpretative center and Giant Springs state park. The Air base has a small museum and static display as well and if you are into art there is the Charlie Russell museum.

Or Livingston.

Rent an AWD crossover if you can, but really any FWD car with decent tires should be fine this winter.   Not a lot of snow this year.

If a pass is closed, then it really doesn't matter what type of vehicle you're in. Your most likely difficulties will not be on the interstates (which get highest priority for snow/ice removal), but on the smaller state/county highways.  

Anytime you are driving on roads through the mountains, be aware that although the road may be perfectly dry right now, around the next curve there might be a shady spot that holds ice/snow.

Along your planned route, I-15 is usually more "sporty" than I-90, if there has been a recent storm.

Will look into those, thanks!



Thanks for the reminder on the shady spots.

I did try to get AWD from the rental place, but they always say they cant guarantee which vehicle you get. Honestly, i dont know if ive EVER gotten the vehicle i actually rented.

I downloaded the montana dot app, which is really nice. I also downloaded the idaho dot/511 app, a bit more rudimentary, but should be good enough.

If the winter up there has been anything like down here, then its been a hot and dry one. It was 80 degrees yesterday, which sucked! Barely any rain and no monsoon season. Not looking forward to this next summer, gonna be real hot and real dry, hopefully itll be my last.

Hopefully it stays cool, but nothing shuts down on us! Thanks.

I'm doing more research and might push my luck further and stay up at pries lake for a night and head to butte from there on hwy 200 which goes through sandpoint, id and thompson falls, mt and meet backup with the 90 in missoula.

Is that hwy more treacherous or more likely to be shut down in inclement weather? Checking the weather it doesnt look bad, chances of snow this week, but not showing any currently in that area for next week. the route on google is pretty similar in time and miles as the 90, which leads me to believe its not full of crazy switchbacks or anything too nefarious. Any insight to that hwy or area would also be appreciated, thanks!

Check out Hwy 93 down the Bitterroot valley into Salmon ID and then down to Boise. It's a pretty spectacular drive with beautiful areas to pass through.

You would pick up hwy 93 in Missoula instead of continuing east on 90 to Butte.

i did see hwy 93 and im sure it would be an awesome trip. do you have any experience with that hwy? im just worried about if it easily blocked, treacherous, etc and causing delays/issues with the trip.

200 is a two-lane and doesn't get as much snowplow love as I-90 (if there's a big dump).... but it's basically the lowest elevation in the whole state and doesn't have any passes.   It also has a lot less traffic than I-90. So you should be GTG.

Lost Trail pass is the main 'obstacle' for 93. If there's a big recent dump, it'll be treacherous. If not, it'll be fine.   Just be aware: 93 is extremely curvy from Conner MT to Challis, ID. Not a lot of straight stretches.   If you're feeling carsick or the roads are crappy, it won't be much fun.

On 93 in ID, there's a couple places (at Salmon, and again at Challis) where you choose to bail out and make it a longer trip (distance wise) on much straighter roads south of the mountains.... which probably won't be that much longer, time-wise. If you turn off at Salmon, you can take highway 28 to Arco and check out the Craters of the Moon.   If you decide to stay on 93 at Challis, you will also end up in Arco.    From Arco, the roads (26 and 20) are relatively straight all the way to I-84 and Boise.

If you go through Challis, you have 2 choices to get to Boise - the "long" way (turn south on 93) or the "short" way (through Stanley).   There's actually 2 ways to go from Stanley.. highway 75 to Sun Valley is really scenic, but of course very dependent on road conditions.    Highway 21 is the shorter route (by distance) but is very curvy starting about 20 miles west of Stanley, and it's pretty damn remote.        

Personally, I'd check weather and road conditions right before that trip and then make the call on "bailing" to the longer routes (

200 is one of my favorite drives in the country. But last time I was on it, it was full of moving trucks.

I was assuming it would get as much plowing (thats what he said! ) but not having the passes should help. I was also figuring less traffic and i would have to do less backtracking from priest lake, id. With this route i could go through sandpoint instead of going all the way back to CdA.



I do get car sick, but have never got it while driving, but always fearful of it cause it sucks balls. There is no way way in hell i will let the wife drive in sketchy areas like mountains and switchbacks, cause her driving scares me on flat and boring. I'd rather not find out an 1.5 hours into a 3 hour windy road trip that i can actually get car sick while driving, but i guess sometimes shit happens...

From Missoula im heading to idaho falls for the night, was thinking from idaho falls back over to boise i might take the 20/26 through Arco and craters.

I do have the weather/road app on my phone, just want to see if these ways are viable ways to travel before actually attempting them. Sometimes things look feasible on a map and when you get there, they are not. I like to avoid that as much as possible, but ultimately i'll pay attention to the weather, road conditions and warnings and make my final decision as we are heading to that stretch of hwy. thanks!



Yeah without much exaggerating, i see almost as many out of state plates as i do see arizona plates lately. The snowbirds are here, which adds a lot of out of state plates, but it is DEFINITELY more than just snowbirds.

I lived in Challis for a number of years and drove on Hwy 93 between Lost Trail and Challis dozens of times, and it's curvey in certain areas but saying its extremely curvy is an "over-statement".

Between Conner and Lost trail it's pretty good except for the section on the orginal stretch from Conner up to the section that rebuilt thru the Canyon before Sula.  A huge improvement compared to the older days.

Coming down the Idaho side off Lost Trail it's curvey but it's a wide well-built highway & was resurfaced in the lat 2 years. At the botom it straightens out and you can do the posted sppped limt easily the whole way to North Fork on the Salmon River. From there to Salmon there are some wide sweeping turns and a couple tight ones around the BLM road-side rest stop,  The rest of the way to Salmon is high/regular speed (~60 mph).  

South of Salmon 93 is again fine reg speed driving with some tight areas around north & south of "greater" Elk Bend from Camp Creek to Second Creek, and going through the canyon before Ellis/the Pahsimeroi. From there to Challis is also fine & high speed.

When I say high speed that summer conditions & dry.  This time of the year with the sun angle low there are places that don't get sun this time of the year so you could go fromd ry pavement to icy at the snap of a finger.

The drive to the Sawtooth on Hwy 75 is tesity in places mainly above Thompson Creek to Sunbeam and then it isn't much from there to East Stanley.  I've driven that dozens of times & again it doesn't get much sun so watch out for icy spots.  From Stanley there's two routes to Boise, one going south thru Sun Valley & the other to the west across Banner Summit. But that latter can be closed just over the summit if the winter conditions are tough & the avalanche danger is high on the upper stretch from the summit to Grand Jean.  But that route is the shortest to Boise.

Between Challis & Mackey there's just one small canyon that's tight but this route is pretty straight.

The whole area is easy travel unless there's a winter storm.

Just consider that this time of the year driving on I-15 between Butte & IF (Idaho Falls) can be tricky during a winter storm, plus it gets windy on both sides in ID & MT.

During a storm the drive to Boise via either 20/26 or I-80 can get nasty due to the winds blowing snow.

Thats a lot of great info, thanks!

I figured a guy coming from AZ in winter should be prepared..... it's not as curvy as something like Highway 12 in north central ID for sure... but for an AZ guy who's driving all day to get to the next hotel room, it's going to be a lot.

So forgot to ask about gun laws, ive looked stuff up, but i think some sites are outdated, just not sure which are and arent.

I keep taking for granted constitutional carry and still dont have my ccw. How am i able to carry in vehicle and on my person legally while there?

Thanks.

Are you prepared for single/teens day-time & single/below zero night-time temps this week?  

Plus, high winds due to the weather system that came thru & will hold on to the state this week/

As prepared as i can be...seeing as ive never experienced it though, unsure. I normally run pretty hot anyways, but am bringing a bunch of stuff with that might help?

Ive got base layers from xgo (pants and shirts), some long sleeves shirts, a sweatshirt, a jacket, gloves, plus normal stuff. The jacket is supposed to be windproof, so we'll see...

Well we made it into missoula this evening. We were gonna stop by the 1000 buddha garden thing in arlee on the way, but forgot about losing an hour and it was getting dark and cold, but it sounded like a random and interesting thing to see.

The mountains and trees are beautiful here! The wind makes it cold,  but honestly, the cold hasnt been a real issue. My hands are the part the cold effects the most, but ive just been slapping on glove liners or putting my hands in my pocket and its been all good. Same with the wife and she is NOT a cold person.

Gonna see what the weather does overnight and see which way im heading into idaho falls. If anyone is in missoula and wants to grab lunch or something, let me know!

Oh and apparently you have casinos in montana?! I never knew that. Are they only on reservations im assuming?