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We got off to a lazy start and drove four miles north on US-20 to the Mesa Falls Scenic Byway. We followed the byway south and stopped at both the Upper Mesa Falls and Lower Mesa Falls overlooks.
We back-tracked north to US-20 and continued north on US-20 to ID-87 out of Idaho into Montana, to the boat-launch at the US-287 intersection. I shuttled the drivers so we could leave all vehicles but mine at the US-287 take-out.
This was a good time for me to take a rest day, because I don't find the Madison a very interesting stretch of river, so I just snoozed and read my book at the takeout. The others reported a largely uneventful trip, and felt that it was a bit too low to be interesting. There was, however, one swim when someone tripped over a shallow rock.
After paddling we drove east on US-287 to the Madison Slide/Quake Lake US Forest Service historical interpretive center where we spent a half-hour or so looking at the exhibits and at the massive scar left by the landslide.
From there it was a few more miles east, and then north on US-191 to the Red Cliff US Forest Service campground in the Gallatin National Forest near Big Sky, Montana. Most of us had an unimpressive dinner at Buck's T-4 Lodge in Big Sky.
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