After leaving the Bitterroot Mountains, we first drove to see the Garden of 1000 Buddha’s, and then drove up to check out the historic town of Wallace ID, which is worth a couple hours if you are in the area. Don’t miss the mummified mermaid at the North Idaho Trading Company. Then we continued on to the town of Thompson Falls, which is nice enough to let folks overnight in their parking lot.
Then on to the ‘town’ of Yaak, MT, with a stop at Kootenai Falls along the way. The falls are quite impressive, and definitely worth a stop if you are in the area.
Since our original plan was to be in Alaska exploring small quirky towns all summer, we decided to check out Yaak, MT, a town of about 30 people and 2 bars. We stayed at very friendly ‘Hipcamp’ site, a 2 minute walk to both bars, and with a great swimming hole on the Yaak River. We had some really interesting conversations at the bar (outside patio, of course). The barmaid said it was their busiest summer ever (which was not really all that busy when we were there). Unfortunately we just missed their summer music festival.
This part of the world is definitely Trump country, but we just avoided talking politics, and found everyone very friendly. I would definitely come back.
Full set of photos are here.
