09-Sep-2001 -- After visiting the confluence near Pompeys Pillar, I decided to make a large loop to visit this confluence as well. I decided the easiest access would be via Montana Highway 384 (I-94 exit 72) along the Sarpy Creek valley. It's a nice drive down. About 15 miles south, there's a small dirt road. I missed it the first time around - if you cross over the railroad tracks that are paralleling the road, then you've gone too far - the road is not quite a mile north of those tracks. The road is in pretty good shape. About a mile or so in, bear right onto a slightly worse road - the easiest way to know you're on the right road is to turn on the GPS early and make sure that the road you're on bears straight for the confluence point. I took the wrong fork and ended up driving almost to the 107th meridian before turning back and trying again. The road is prone to be muddy - I wouldn't want to try this anytime before July without a 4-wheel drive.

About 6 miles in from 384, the road will turn to the south, and you'll enter onto a farm. The farm is very close to the 46th parallel, a bit less than a mile west of the confluence. After getting permission from the daughter of the family, who looked about 17 and was probably a little freaked out by me with her parents gone, I decided not to risk the mud on the small farm roads and instead stretched my legs with a nice hike across the terrain.

I decided to stray off the dirt road because it passed a bit south of the confluence, but this required me to duck a barbed wire fence, so sticking to the road is probably the way to go. There's a hill with extraordinary views just south of the confluence - I was hoping it would be the confluence itself, but it turned out to be on the slope down to the north, in a nice little glade of trees.

Returning to the car, I continued driving south, as the road forms a loop and returns to 384. I then continued south and west on 384 until it intersected with Interstate 90 in Hardin, about 40 miles east of Billings. A good loop and a good day.