Montana’s Backcountry Overcrowded? Wilderness Facing Crowds

You hear a lot of people commenting about how Montana is becoming crowded. How we are being invaded by Californians. No vacancy. It all seems like people whining until you actually see what they are complaining about.

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With the tourist season winding down, you can still find out-of-state plates on about 1 out of every 5 cars driving down any Montana road. However, take a trip to the nearest trailhead and that number is about 1:1. With plates hailing from Minnesota, Washington, Colorado, Texas, and California littered across the trailhead parking area.

Hunting season has begun in Montana for the 2024 archery season. I chose to throw my kid into the "deep end of the pool" and take him on a backcountry elk hunt for his first time as a licensed bow hunter. Using 2 old pack mules and packs on our backs, we figured we could get far enough into the backcountry to escape all the human pressure that comes with hunting season. We were wrong.

With every mile we hiked, more and more canvas tents would appear along the wilderness trail. At mile four we came upon a tent compound with multiple tents and a pasture filled with pack horses. At mile 5 we finally decided to give it a rest and set up camp and set out hunting. Soon we discovered 4 more camps close by. It was like being in a crowded KOA campground, just many miles into the Montana backcountry wilderness.

I always thought that half the reason people choose to hunt the backcountry is to get away from the crowded public lands that are easy to access. The hardest part of hunting is finding a place to hunt. The more difficult it is to access typically means less human pressure on game animals.

I plan to go into Montana's backcountry again this archery season. Let's hope that the fiasco this past opening day was the typical opening day chaos that each hunting season has here in Montana.