Hungry Horse Res (how much, home, camping)

[Stephan_K]

Anybody know the condition of the East Side and West Side roads along Hungry Horse Res ?

Wide enough to travel with a trailer and not get stuck with oncoming vehicles ?

Too potholed or rumble stripped for a trailer ? Your opinion anyhow... I know their not perfect gravel roads as there is no such thing in MT. Just wondering how much damage a trailer would endure going from one end to the other of the res and if you could do it safely.

[Reziac]

I'm thinkin' dragging a travel trailer over gravel roads is asking to have the frame shook apart.

[bigskydude]

Never had much trouble with our 24 foot 5th wheel, or our boat trailer for that matter.

There are even places wide enough to turn around if you like, mostly around many of the boat launches.

Just be sure to stay out of the bottoms when the water line is below the boat ramps.

[Stephan_K]

That's what I wanna hear .

[bigskydude]

The area isn't as primitive as the Yaak, and isn't quite as over developed as Georgetown Lake. It's sits nicely in between.

[Stephan_K]

Yep... makin plans to spend a couple/few weeks of the summer in that neck of the woods with the wife and kids. It sounds and looks like my kind of camping. I don't do and have never done those highly developed camp areas. Hungry Horse camp areas are probably pretty busy in the middle of summer too ! I guess we're gonna find out.

Yaak camping ! Got a couple spots picked out up there too . Wish me luck ...

[rickers]

Youngsters drive that road very fast and hog the whole road. I'd take it easy and keep well to the right approaching the curves. That road has a rep for eating up tires so make sure your spare has air and be sure to have your tire changing stuff with you. Fish the bays where creeks come in.

[Redraven]

I was up there a couple years ago to meet my sons at Lost Johnny Point Campground. I was shocked to discover that the road was PAVED to Lost Johnny and beyond, and the interior roads AND CAMP SITES were paved!
I don't know how far the pavement goes.
Civilization has encroached on one of the last best places!

[rickers]

I call it "Hungry ***** Reservoir" ! I don't care that they paved the road. I enjoy going way back in there to fish and my neck and back can't take the pounding from the road the way it was. I once went to Graves Bay to fish the bay where Graves Creek cascades down into the water and there were two guys fishing there. I generally don't encroach on other folks fishing spot but that is my favorite "easy to get to" shore fishing spot so I went right down next to where they were fishing. They had been there since sunrise and hadn't caught any fish at all. Out of about seven or eight casts I caught my three fish limit in about ten minutes ! Those guys were dumbfounded, they shook their heads and went back to their truck, ate sandwiches and left. I wasn't trying to show them up or anything. I continued to fish the spot and couldn't seem to catch any more than the three keep limit.
I don't always keep the fish I catch but if they are small and aren't all full of mercury like the large lake fish usually are then I will take one or two home for supper. I still feel kinda bad about hijacking their spot and skunking them out of there like that. Oh well !
There is a short river float starting from a point just below the gorge and a campground accessed by a very steep trail. You go down the river (South Fork Flathead River) and into the reservoir, then its a lake paddle to Crossover Campground. Real good fishing.

[Reziac]

Haha!! I remember one day I was fishing on the East Gallatin. I was down among some holes below a tangle of dead trees; up above me were a bunch of fly fishermen on the riffles, all diligently doing their thing. I caught a grasshopper, strung it on my hook, dropped it down my favourite hole, and had a big fish for dinner in 30 seconds flat.

And my landing technique isn't sport, either -- it's designed to ensure that I eat. I don't play the fish up to the bank. Once the hook is set I just HEAVE on the line, the fish flies out of the water and sails overhead, then I go hunt for the fish over in the bushes.

The fly fishermen all stared at me like they'd seen a bear. But they went home emptyhanded, and I had fresh fish for dinner.