Trip to pick up trailer in Washington State

[GladiGator]

Hi from Oklahoma. My wife and I are planning a 2 week trip in early July, with the first few days being a hot shot to Seattle to pick up an Offroad camper. After that we want to ramble around the PNW and on the way back maybe hit Glacier or Yellowstone. Any tips/advice would be amazing. We are pretty seasoned Colorado overlanders at this point but nothing longer than 5-6 days of trail riding and dispersed camping. Planning this one in unfamiliar territory is a little daunting.

Thanks for any support from the community.

 

[OTH Overland]

Micheal, July will have pretty much all forest service roads and trails snow free and cleared so a lot of area to explore out here depending on your time availability. The most popular trail here is probably the Washington Backcountry Discovery Route, basically a network of mostly forest service roads running through the center of the state from Oregon to Canada. Not very technical, but some really good scenery and a good representation of all the different topography we have out here. Best part is you can jump on any of the various sections and have a great time. Not sure where you are picking up your camper (Mule expeditions in issaquah?) But you could jump on the WABDR off of I-90 and run north to the Canadian border (best part of the WABDR in my opinion) and then head east toward Montana. Glacier park if you have not been there is well worth the visit, especially the going to the sun road (paved road) but you do need a permit due to crowded conditions in summer, so you would want to reserve that as soon as you could. a couple of great trails in Montana worth a visit that you could hit after Glacier would the the MagGruder Corridor from Orangeville ID to Darby Mt. Can be done in a long day, but best to Camp somewhere in the middle. its a narrow strip of land that runs between Bitterroot-Selway and Frank Church Wilderness areas, great scenery. This can be combined with the Lolo Motorway to make a loop from Missoula.

We are located about an hour north of Seattle, feel free to hit us up if you need a driveway to park in to organize and set up you new camper before heading back out on the road.

 

[ZombieCat]

2024 will be my 6th visit to Glacier National Park in the last seven years; I’ll be there in mid July. I’d like to offer a few tips for visiting in July, as the rules for entry and camping have changed yet again:
1) As of July 1, vehicle reservations are required between 6am-3pm for the west entrance of the GTTSR, Many Glacier and the North Fork. The east entrance of the GTTSR and Two Medicine do not require any reservations. The initial release for July has come and gone, but fear not - additional reservations are released each evening at 7pm via reservation.gov for the following day. Refer to the park website for details.

vehicle reservations - Glacier National Park (U.S. National Park Service)

www.nps.gov

2) Getting a campsite is even more challenging. Yes, most within the park are already booked, but as with the road reservations, there are a number held back for late release (4 days from arrival) and others that are first come, first served. There are additional options outside of the park to include commercial locations (KOA, Johnson’s of St. Mary, places in Coram and Hungry Horse), national forest (on the west side of the park)and tribal campgrounds (Chewing Black Bones, Duck Lake on the east side). I’ve come to prefer the east side. Although there are less amenities (less touristy), it’s closer to the best scenery and hiking. It’s also great for a day trip to Waterton Lakes National Peace Park (bring your passport and take the boat to Goat Haunt!).
3) You will NOT be able to tow your trailer across the GTTSR. The size limits for your entire rig are 21 ft long, 8 ft wide, and 10 ft tall. When you drive the section of the road between The Loop and Logan Pass, you’ll understand why!
If you have questions, feel free to reach out to me. I’ve visited many of the western parks and public lands, learning by trial and error.

 

[Dean2]

If you go through Yellowstone, you should check out the Beartooth Plateau, just east of the park through Cooke City, MT. It's an amazing landscape and it may be easier to camp there than in the park (just as many bears, though). You can drop down into Red Lodge, MT on the Beartooth Pass (world class piece of highway) or go down Chief Joseph Highway and come out near Cody, WY. (It's almost as good as Beartooth.)

 

[OTH Overland]

If you go through Yellowstone, you should check out the Beartooth Plateau, just east of the park through Cooke City, MT. It's an amazing landscape and it may be easier to camp there than in the park (just as many bears, though). You can drop down into Red Lodge, MT on the Beartooth Pass (world class piece of highway) or go down Chief Joseph Highway and come out near Cody, WY. (It's almost as good as Beartooth.)

Both excellent roads, fun in any rig, but waaaay better on a motorcycle. Beartooth for the win, but time allows make a loop and get both...

 

[Ebbs]

Depending on how many days you have, there's a decent path we've traveled from Coeur D'Alene to Polebridge, MT ( Mercantile there has amazing huckleberry pastries) that is mostly dirt, it'll eat up a full day from CDA though, and our group camped on the shore of the Flat Head River. PM me and I can help draw out this route if it's doable for ya.

 

[GladiGator]

Micheal, July will have pretty much all forest service roads and trails snow free and cleared so a lot of area to explore out here depending on your time availability. The most popular trail here is probably the Washington Backcountry Discovery Route, basically a network of mostly forest service roads running through the center of the state from Oregon to Canada. Not very technical, but some really good scenery and a good representation of all the different topography we have out here. Best part is you can jump on any of the various sections and have a great time. Not sure where you are picking up your camper (Mule expeditions in issaquah?) But you could jump on the WABDR off of I-90 and run north to the Canadian border (best part of the WABDR in my opinion) and then head east toward Montana. Glacier park if you have not been there is well worth the visit, especially the going to the sun road (paved road) but you do need a permit due to crowded conditions in summer, so you would want to reserve that as soon as you could. a couple of great trails in Montana worth a visit that you could hit after Glacier would the the MagGruder Corridor from Orangeville ID to Darby Mt. Can be done in a long day, but best to Camp somewhere in the middle. its a narrow strip of land that runs between Bitterroot-Selway and Frank Church Wilderness areas, great scenery. This can be combined with the Lolo Motorway to make a loop from Missoula.

We are located about an hour north of Seattle, feel free to hit us up if you need a driveway to park in to organize and set up you new camper before heading back out on the road.

We are picking up a Mammoth in Woodinsville. East to glacier is what I think we’re going to do. I’m stopping at a friends cabin in Rosalyn the night we pick up. Appreciate the comment on the permit. I didn’t even think about that. I’m still mapping out how far we need to be by that stage of our trip.

Sorry for the delayed response. I’m not getting notifications from OB forums when a comment is dropped. I need to change that setting.

 

[GladiGator]

2024 will be my 6th visit to Glacier National Park in the last seven years; I’ll be there in mid July. I’d like to offer a few tips for visiting in July, as the rules for entry and camping have changed yet again:
1) As of July 1, vehicle reservations are required between 6am-3pm for the west entrance of the GTTSR, Many Glacier and the North Fork. The east entrance of the GTTSR and Two Medicine do not require any reservations. The initial release for July has come and gone, but fear not - additional reservations are released each evening at 7pm via reservation.gov for the following day. Refer to the park website for details.

vehicle reservations - Glacier National Park (U.S. National Park Service)

www.nps.gov

2) Getting a campsite is even more challenging. Yes, most within the park are already booked, but as with the road reservations, there are a number held back for late release (4 days from arrival) and others that are first come, first served. There are additional options outside of the park to include commercial locations (KOA, Johnson’s of St. Mary, places in Coram and Hungry Horse), national forest (on the west side of the park)and tribal campgrounds (Chewing Black Bones, Duck Lake on the east side). I’ve come to prefer the east side. Although there are less amenities (less touristy), it’s closer to the best scenery and hiking. It’s also great for a day trip to Waterton Lakes National Peace Park (bring your passport and take the boat to Goat Haunt!).
3) You will NOT be able to tow your trailer across the GTTSR. The size limits for your entire rig are 21 ft long, 8 ft wide, and 10 ft tall. When you drive the section of the road between The Loop and Logan Pass, you’ll understand why!
If you have questions, feel free to reach out to me. I’ve visited many of the western parks and public lands, learning by trial and error.

This is super helpful information. Not being able to bring my trailer along pretty much removes GTTSR off my list. Finding a spot and dropping the teardrop and the driving the road and then coming back is just a logistical annoyance that I’d rather not address. I’m guessing that the new vehicle reservation system is in place to create a large enough barrier that it cuts down on traffic? Being out of state, not getting the reservation early enough and then banking on getting one at 7p the night before (while being staged outside the park) seems like it’s just a redirection of traffic to the surrounding dispersed and formal campgrounds.

 

[Ebbs]

When in July are you picking up Mammoth? We have a group trip the 19th-21st leaving CDA and going to polebridge (Friday night camp at blue lake, Saturday night camp will be on the flathead River). We'll post the rally point in the coming week. Our group ran it last year and it was definitely a fan favorite route.
If the dates line up you're more than welcome to join, here's a link to where we post all our trips