Road Trip Day 9 – Noxon, MT – Hike to an abandoned mine

The next day we slept in again-until almost 11. We’re not sure if it was because of being in the car all day, or because of the gray weather, or just because we sere taking advantage of having a bed to sleep in as we knew we’d be camping in the very near future. We awoke to already made coffee and plenty of choices for breakfast. Bubba and Cheryl made sure we were both well fed and had plenty of choices for every meal. Our stomachs were never empty. After eating a quick breakfast and prepping some sandwiches for lunch, we were off to a trail that Bubba had recommended: a hike to an abandoned mine. This was also in the Kootenai National forest. Bubba and Cheryl had volunteered with the National Forest Service this Summer and knew the area extremely well, so they were able to give us millions of recommendations and directions to lots of sites.


The hike was really nice. Again, the area had hundreds of types of mushrooms; some that we hadn’t even seen on our last hike; so we took more photos.


The hike to the mine was about 3 miles each way; we took our time and enjoyed the views at all of the river crossings.




Bridges had been built for all of them, but the river had washed out one bridge. This made for an interesting and tricky river crossing, as the water was cold and moving quickly. We were able to make our way across and continued up to the mine.


The mine was really cool; tons of super heavy and crazy mining equipment remained at the site. The site was spectacular; there was a large (30 feet or so) waterfall, and the mine entrance, and all of the equipment, all right in front of our eyes. We took some photos before heading back to the car.




We would have liked to explore around the mine a bit more; but the sun had turned to gray skies, and it was beginning to rain. We hiked back through a light drizzle, but there was a lot of tree cover, so we didn’t really even get wet.


It was amazing to think how they would have even gotten all of that heavy mining equipment so far back there. We probably drove 9 miles or so off of the main road down dirt roads before getting to the trailhead, which was about 3 miles from the mine. Not to mention this is way out in the woods of Montana, not very close to any major cities. We then cruised back to Bubba and Cheryl’s for dinner. By cruising, I mean flying down the tiny one lane highway at 70 mph; the speed limit in Montana is a safe and sane: 70 mph during the day and 65 mph at night. Don’t worry; it slows down to 55 mph through towns. You have to try to stay at 70 because it seems so foreign to go that fast on these tiny highways, but it’s really fun nonetheless. The freeway speed is 75; but obviously there’s a lot more room on those; so that seems normal.
This night for dinner we had big plans of heading into the bustling town of Noxon; first to visit the local favorite bar, Toby’s, and then to have dinner at the Hereford Restaurant.



Toby’s Bar was awesome; it contained tons of old time photos from the history of the bar; a jukebox full of country music classics and some old and really drunk locals. Beers were $2 and you got 7 songs on the jukebox for $1; pretty good prices. Also some interesting décor.


We stayed just long enough to see the Giants win the World Series! The Locals were rooting for the Giants; which was a surprise to me; but a welcome one!


After Toby’s, Cheryl, our DD, drove us over to The Hereford where we had dinner. The walls were lined with pictures of locals posing with their hunting victories. There is so much wildlife in this area; its crazy. Deer, Mule Deer, Elk, Moose, Black Bear, Grizzly Bear, Wolves, Coyotes, Mountain Goats, Big Horn Sheep and Mountain Lions.
After dinner, we headed home as it was getting late; we were out until about 10 p.m.-Bubba usually goes to sleep at 8 p.m., so it was great of him to stay up late just to entertain us. Both the bar and dinner were a great time; it was really fun to see the town and have a drink in a crazy western style bar. It wasn’t hard to imagine that that place has had some wild nights.