Hey All,
Anybody out there ever been to the Missouri Breaks in Montana.
Planning a trip there for July.
Wondering how the fishing is and anything else folks could share.
It looks to be fabulous scenery, and fairly remote.
Canoedog

Where's that at? I have a buddy who goes paddle fishing near williston, ND each year on the Missouri.

ND,
It runs from Fort Benton to the Charles m. Russell Wildlife Refuge.
It is in north central Montana.
Canoedog

Did the Missouri Breaks from Ft Benton to Kipp Landing a few years ago. Big vistas, wildlife, birds, history. It was a great trip.

We did a pretty long section, and there were only a couple of bridges across the river in that length. It's pretty remote, but not more than BWCAW.

The river is easy to navigate, and no whitewater (no portages). We took along a couple who were in a canoe for the first time and they did great.

The only negatives, I thought, were 1) that you had to bring your own fresh water for the full trip which isn't too bad because there are no portages; and 2) there is "open range land" which means there are cows in some places.

If you live in the midwest and haven't paddled in the west, it's a great experience. If you've read about the Lewis & Clark expedition, then it will be even better.

Go for it.

hey watermark? how many days was that trip? any fishing? how does camping work there? (as far as trespassing goes....etc.)

Let's see... It was Sept 2004. I think it was 8 days, covering about 145 miles. We didn't do any fishing at all; the water is a bit muddy but i think we saw a few people fishing. People: we saw fewer people on the Missouri than on a BWCA trip.

Shuttle: we paid for a return shuttle, pre-arranged, through adventurebound canoe company in Ft Benton. www.adventureboundcanoe.com/
This worked out well, though there are probably other services that are also good.

I'd recommend a couple books:

Montana's Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument, by Graetz
this has a good mile-by-mile river guide and great photos.

Montana's Wild and Scenic Upper Missouri River, by Monahan and Biggs
This has more history, geology, wildlife.

Also, some excellent river maps are available at the ranger station (or park service office) in Ft Benton. Very nice maps.

On-line stuff: http://members.aol.com/Mmcbs2/mizzoumt.html

Camping - it's "first come" to the campsites, just like BWCA. I think you could, in theory, camp on any of the public lands, but the established campsites are clearly the best. These are well marked on the maps.

We saw elk, pronghorn antelope, mule deer, coyotes, fox, and lots of birds. Didn't see any bears, though there are few black bears in the area.

I almost forgot: you have to carry some sort of means for removing human waste. There are out-houses at the biggest campsites but some others are more primitive, and you're required to pack out anything. Use the wag-bag set-up, just like the western raft guys, and it's not a big deal at all. It was not something we looked forward to, and we expected it to be a problem, but with the wag-bags it's super easy and no odor at all (wag-bags basically turn it all into a big blob of gelatin sealed into a special bag; carry one wag-bag per day).

Do your homework and it'll be a piece-of-cake trip with fantastic scenery and historical value.

We did go on the trip to the Missouri Breaks over July 4th week.
It was great. The water was high from the rain they had been getting,
and the water was a little muddy.
Fair fishing, cat fish and bass and sauger.
The scenery was fabulous!
The weather was good, not too hot till the last day.
The last few miles,(about 12 or so) were real windy and buggy.
The last campsite was an adventure. A wade thru the mud and bugs for about 20 yards to the camp site, and then the gnats and mosquitoes decided to come out.
Up until then the bugs were few.
I recommend, going from Coal Banks to the ferry.
Other tan the drive, it was a very good trip.
I put some photos in.
Canoedog

Nice post; nice pics.

Where was your take-out? Sounds like you had great weather.

Our favorite camping spot was McGarry Bar (river right, just a few miles past the ferry). We had a frost that night (it was Sept), and was really perfect weather and morning lighting. It was around this point and a bit further as well that we saw Bighorn Sheep. Also we saw a few elk near Kipp Landing.

Sounds like you had a great trip! Thanks for sharing the photos.

Watermark,
We got out at Kipp Rec. Area. The last strecth of river was pretty slow and windy. Not as scenic as the upper parts.
We had one long day of paddling, many of the camp sites had cattle in them.
All in all it was a great trip.
Canoedog