Road trip day 10 – Noxon, MT – 4 wheel drive to Gem Peak

After our late night out; we again slept in; we’re getting pretty good at sleeping in by now. We loaded up the 4 wheelers and drove in to Noxon. Bubba and Cheryl live outside of town by about 5 or 10 minutes. We parked the truck in the local park, directly across from Toby’s. We then set out on the 4 wheelers for the 15 mile drive up the mountain; on winding muddy dirt roads all the way. The ride up was awesome; 4 wheelers are a blast on Montana backroads, even more so when they are covered in mud thanks to days of rain and snow. The weather today was great; the temps were in the high to mid 50s and the sun was shining. We rode up about 14 7/8 miles before jumping off to hike to the top as the snow was getting too deep to drive in, and the 4 wheelers were starting to slide all over the trail. We weren’t sure how much further the peak was, but we were pleased once we got around the next curve; about 500 yards from where we parked to find the lookout tower on top of Gem Peak. This is an old Fire Tower Lookout that you can actually rent out to camp in from the forest service. It has a wood burning stove and beds and a table; and a ton of wood for the stove; all for $20 a night.

You walk up about 3 stories to the top of the tower where the lookout apartment is and the views are incredible. 360 degree veiws of all of the surrounding mountains. You can literally see to Canada and Idaho from the top. We took some photos and checked out some Elk tracks in the snow before heading back down the hill. Western Montana is beautiful; the whole section of the state could literally be a national park; it’s amazing. We rode through the snow back to the lower elevations where the snow changed to slush and mud.

After safely returning to the car; we loaded up and drove back to the house. It was going to be our final night here; which was sad; but our good weather window had opened up for Yellowstone; so we were setting out early to make the drive from Noxon to Yellowstone the next day. We had another great meal made by Cheryl; she cooked the entire time we were there for every meal for us; Bubba and Cheryl were so great to us our entire time; we both can’t wait to get back to Noxon! We had diner and then played a game of Spades; which Lauren just learned and now loves. During our game we were briefly interrupted by the howling of either wolves or coyotes in the trees just outside of Bubba and Cheryl’s house. Always something roaming around in those hills in Montana. We then took some photos of Max before going to sleep.


We really had an amazing time in Montana and both want to go back. The summer would be amazing, with all of the rivers. Lots of options for both fishing and rafting/canoeing!