Forest Road 92
Kootenai NF, Montana
A tricky-to-follow, very twisty remote backway just miles from the Canadian border in northern Montana.
Scenic Impact |
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Overall Score: 7.0 |
Twistiness |
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 |
Fun-to-Drive: 8.5 |
Surface Quality |
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 |
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Traffic |
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Rankings and ratings explained |
National Forest backways are a hit-and-miss affair. Sometimes they'll be wonderful hidden gems, sometimes they'll turn into a 4x4-style adventure. If you can manage to stay on FR-92, you are in for a very twisty alternative to the main highways in the region.
FR-92 starts, at its west end, at lake Koocanusa (gee, wonder where they got that name....), right at the nice bridge which crosses over from MT 37. From there the road hugs the lake for a bit (maybe 5-10km) and then veers left and up, climbing steeply and with several very tight hairpins (watch out for cow dung!). There is a fork in the road before the road starts to climb, and it is easy to take the 'low' road along the lake instead of selecting the proper route leading up.
Once up above the lake, the road winds its way along the course of former logging roads, with many esses as it traverses along the sides of forested mountains. Eventually the road becomes more gentle and arrives at another strangely named location: Yaak, MT. The twisties and at this point.
There is very little traffic on this road. However, the road surface is a bit narrow and a bit rough. It has been recently chip-sealed (or re-chip-sealed), and so there can be a bit of dust and stones. As time goes on this should be less of an issue.