We are currently on our long Summer road trip. We are in Colorado for the next couple of weeks and were then planning on going up to Bozeman and then Red Lodge before heading Eastwards. Having arrived in CO we are a little dismayed at the haziness from the fires further West. We can't smell any smoke here but now I am concerned it will be worse in Montana.

We are already on plan B for this trip as we had planned on going to Glacier National Park and then Washington State but the fires are so bad up there we changed direction and came to Colorado instead. Do we need to come up with plan C?

 

What is the concern with smoke? Breathing problems or worried about the vistas being less than perfect?

Forecast is showing some strong northerly winds the next few days so I would expect the smoke to be pretty thick.

Grand Tetons won't be worthwhile, but Yellowstone has plenty to see that won't be affected by smoky haze.

Plan C could skip the west and head for the Great Lakes region...UP is beautiful this time of year.

 

Thanks for your reply Colorido. My concern with the smoke is the air quality. The haziness cannot detract from the amazing riding here in Colorado. However, breathing and smelling smoke is not on my list of fun things to do so I do not want to head up to Montana if it is really smoky. We are riding back East through the Black Hills and may just head there sooner than planned.

We have ridden through the UP twice on our way West from the Northeast - both times it rained the whole time we were passing through. We will not be putting that on our Plan C list!

 

I'm in helena and the smoke has been thick! We get some relief from it but it will come back! Sorry to say it has just been tough to ride in and I don't think that it is going to let up anytime soon! The weather doesn't look good this weekend but next week looks pretty good! Hopefully this helps.

 

A Brit saying it rains too much in the UP. Isn't that the pot, calling the kettle Black?

 

If I want to play in the rain I can go to England! I prefer it Stateside!!

Thanks for your reply 5150northrider. I have discovered the Montana.gov website that gives air quality reports. I think this will be useful.

 

Came through Montana last Thursday and it was pretty bad starting in Eastern Washington and especially between Missoula and Great Falls. It was smoky about halfway through North Dakota until Minot. I'm in Michigan now and Will be heading west starting tomorrow. I'm going through Yellowstone then I -90 to Seattle. I hope the recent weather in the Pacific Northwest helps with the fires and smoke.

 

Deleted due to wrong thread. Damn iPhone...