We probably wouldn’t have bothered with this National Recreation Area if it hadn’t been so close to the Little Bighorn Battlefield NP, but we found the Yellowtail Dam to be very interesting. The dam itself is very impressive, and the setting is stunning. The visitor center at the top of the dam had interesting exhibits, as well as a most impressive view of the dam. To us, the most interesting thing about this dam is that it was built upstream from an existing dam, so not only is there a reservoir above the dam, but another lake sits between the Yellowtail Dam and the lower dam, and both dams are used to control the water.
We looked at the Yellowtail Dam from the visitor center, then drove down to check out the campground, which is on the lower lake, and walked around that area. We tried to walk to the lower dam, but the trail ended at an uncrossable ravine filled with water from the previous night’s rain. We then drove to the closed visitor center near the lower dam and walked on the trail back to the ravine, and then down to the lower dam. The dam is also a bridge for pedestrians and vehicles, which gave us a great viewing spot to watch the fishermen putting their float boats in the rushing river. A lot of trucks and trailers were at the boat launch, and as we watched we figured out the game. Each boat had three occupants, two to fish and one to man the oars and steer. The three man crew would come with the truck and trailer, and another car or motorcycle. They would take the boat off the trailer at the base of the dam, then two of the three would take the trailer to another boat launch about five miles down river, and drive back in the car, or on the moto if one person did the transfer. Then all three would get in the boat to do the float to the next boat launch, where their trailer was waiting. The river was moving quite quickly, and we wanted to go to the other end to see how long the float took, but by this point it was mid-afternoon, and we decided we had to head west.
Our next major stop was Helena, the capital of Montana, so we had to go through Billings. We found that the Cabela’s in Billings is considered one of the best Cabela’s in the country, so we needed to check it out. It is indeed entirely set up for boondocking RV’s, and even has dog kennels and a horse corral. It had a hydrant for fresh water, but the lines froze in the winter and they haven’t fixed it, so no water. It has two small lots of long pull though spaces, each long enough for a class A towing a car. We had heard that the lot fills up, so we pulled to the front and another short camper pulled in behind us and we shared the space. It felt more like a campground, and we talked to a number of our neighbors, which doesn’t usually happen at those types of boondocking spots. The only negative was one very long Class A pulling a trailer with a Cadillac SUV, who pulled in and straddled two spots so they had room to pop their slide outs, and who then ran their generator all night because they obviously needed air conditioning during the 50 degree night, and because they were self absorbed entitled assholes. They probably didn’t even notice that the lot did actually fill during the night, although those who came in late just parked in the regular lot and nobody at Cabela’s seemed to care.
