Idaho

Hells Canyon National Recreation Area

From the 50 State Visitor Guide :

Idaho Code 2022 §§18-8301 through 18-8414.  I.D.A.P.A. §11.10.03.000 through 11.10.03.012.

Registration Triggers and Deadlines:

Two working days for initial registration and updates.  Transient registrants must report location every 7 days.  §§18-8307, 18-8308.

Statutes do not address registration requirements for visitors. However, "Temporary lodging" means any place in which the offender is staying when away from his or her residence for seven (7) or more days 18-8323 (1)(h). Added Aug. 2024. Also, “any person who enters this state … and makes an application for an identification card or a [drivers] license in this state” is presumed to be establishing a residence. §18-8306(4). Sheriff will notify you of the 2 day obligation to register (see above). 

Rolfe survey indicates that visits of 7 days or more require registration.  

Temporary volunteers or employees:  Must register if in state for more than ten consecutive days, or for an aggregate period of 30 days in a calendar year.  If “employment involves counseling, coaching, teaching, supervising or working with minors in any way,” must register “regardless of the period of employment.” §18-8303(6).

Residency/Presence and Other Restrictions:

May not reside or loiter within 500 ft. of school, and may not reside within more than one person also required to register, with certain exceptions.  §§18-8331, 18-8332.

Presence restriction:  Day cares, unless picking up or dropping off one’s own children.  §18-8327.

Duration & updates:

Lifetime.  Petition to remove – 10 yrs.  Sexually Violent Persons must update every 3 months.  All others update annually.  §18-8307.

Per Rolfe Survey, Visiting Registrants once placed on state’s registry ARE NOT REMOVED.

Deer feeding at roadside

Most recent visits: August & September 2023

I have read through Idaho’s statutes several times and still have a number of questions about it, but calling the Idaho SOR office proved useless because all you get is an outgoing message that says they only answer questions from attorneys.  Therefore in discussing the number of days you can be in this state or what restrictions might apply to you while visiting I need to err on the side of caution. 

For example, Idaho Statutes do not address registration requirements for visitors.  However, “transient registrants” must report location every 7 days (§§18-8307, 18-8308) and I notice that the Rolfe Survey claims visits of 7 days or more require registration.  Putting those two things together I conclude that if you’re in state for 7 days or more that would automatically make you a  “transient registrant” and you have to register … so just be gone by the end of Day 6.

Do partial days count?  I don’t know and they won’t answer that question, so your safest bet is to assume they do.  However, Idaho Statutes sets no maximum number of days per calendar month or year, and they won’t answer that question either, so I my assumption is that return visits are okay.

Scenic Idaho river

First pass through Idaho

These are the assumptions I felt safe in making on my 2023 Pacific Northwest Tour, when I passed through Idaho twice.  My first pass consisted of three consecutive partial days, well within the state’s limit.  On Day 1 I entered from Montana on U.S. 2 and took a look at Bonner’s Ferry (where I had lunch), Sandpoint and Kootenai before returning to Montana.  And I must say I was not impressed.

On Day 2 I entered Idaho again from Montana again late in the afternoon, this time on I-90, on my way to my reserved campsite at Hepburn State Park.  Nice place.  The next morning I got back on I-90 and headed west into Washington State.  As brief as each of those partial day forays into Idaho were, they were consecutive and they all counted.

Sawtooth National Recreation Area

Second pass through Idaho

My second pass through Idaho consisted of four consecutive partial days, again well within what I infer to be the state’s limit.  These two visits were separated by 12 calendar days and were in two different months (Aug & Sept) so according to the assumptions I made above I was fine.

My first partial day of my second pass through Idaho was not planned in advance.  I had been in Oregon and decided to go take a look at Hells Canyon National Recreation Area, and the most logical way to get back from there to my reserved motel room in Ontario OR was SR 71 and US 95 in Idaho.  And you may say Oh Please!  How can that little short cut even count?!  But my job here isn’t to comment on the utter stupidity of any state’s registry laws, it’s to explain how I navigated those laws so you can too.

On Day 2 of this pass I entered Idaho from Ontario OR early in the morning, made a loop up US 95 and down State Road 55.  My original plan was to find a campground somewhere in Boise National Forest, but that was the day I changed my mind and decided to go back to Ontario and scope it out as a possible future base camp for Pacific Northwest travel (see the Pacific Northwest Tour Overview and my Oregon blog entry).  So yes I spent most of the day in Idaho but still a partial day.

Devil's Orchard, Craters of the Moon National Monument

Sawtooth National Recreation Area and Craters of the Moon National Monument

Day 3 was my most extensive travel day in Idaho.  Entering from Ontario again, Sawtooth National Recreation Area was magnificent and my only regret is that I couldn’t devote any more time to it.  Maybe next time!  

I wanted to return to a place I’d been to years ago – Craters of the Moon National Monument.  Like Lava Beds National Monument only bigger (see California), it consists of vast lava beds (laid down only 2000 years ago) and twisted formations.  I walked the Devil’s Orchard Nature Trail, drove the park loop road to see Inferno Cone and Big Sink Overlook.  It’s like a dream world.

From there I headed east late in the afternoon on my way to find a campground somewhere east of Idaho Falls.  Ririe Lake Recreation Area fit the bill nicely and had showers too.  This was the only night I slept in Idaho on my second pass.  The next morning, my fourth consecutive partial day, I grabbed some breakfast at a convenience store and headed over the Tetons into Wyoming.

 Northern California

Grove of Titans, Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park

From the 50 State Visitor Guide:

Cal. Penal Code 2019 Effective July 1, 2021  §§290 through 294

Cal. Penal Code §§ 3003, 3003.5.   Cal. Welf. & Inst. Code § 6608.5

Registration Triggers and Deadlines:

All registrants must register within 5 working days of coming into the state. §290.011; updates also within 5 working days.  §§290(b), 290.013.  Those working in the state for 14 days or for more than 30 days in a calendar year must register. §290.002.  Those who “regularly reside” at a temporary or permanent residence must register “regardless of the number of days or nights spent here.” §290.010.

Transients must reregister every 30 days. §290.011.

Residency/Presence and Other Restrictions:

Presence restriction:  Registrants may not enter schools without permission.  §626.81. Parolees with convictions involving minors under 14 may not enter parks without permission. §3053.8.  May not enter daycare or place for dependent adult if conviction involved dependent adult. §653c. 

Residence restriction: 2,000 ft. of schools and parks.  §3003.5(b).  NOTE: this statute was declared unconstitutional as applied to certain parolees by In re Taylor, 60 Cal. 4th 1019 (2015) and is no longer being enforced by the state.  However, local governments may enforce this statute or local ordinances.

Few local governments have more restrictive requirements, not because there is a state pre-emption but because ACSOL aggressively sues & overturns them.

Duration & updates:

Lifetime. Petition to remove: T1 – 10 yrs. T2 – 20 yrs. SVPs update every 90 days; all others update annually. §290.012.

NOTE:  Per Rolfe Survey, visiting registrants are placed on state’s website and not removed. However, per ACSOL staff, procedure available for removal from registry after departure.

 

Herd of Elk crossing U.S. 101

Most recent visit: September 2023

For registered visitors, California is better than some states but worse than others. All registrants must register within five working days of coming into the state. §290.011. Notice the statute says “within five working days,” so it’s clear that your fifth working day in California will trigger their registration requirement. So in reality you only get four working days. Also, as with most states, you should always assume that partial days count – so enter California in the morning and leave four working days later in the evening.

The good news is that weekends and holidays don’t count, so if you include a weekend you can extend your stay. Also, there appears to be no limit per month or year, so if you do include a weekend, and leave California for at least one full calendar day (and two nights) in mid-week, you can re-start the clock.

Another piece of good news is that it has very few local ordinances or regulations more restrictive than state law. However, in California’s case that’s not because they have any state pre-emption. Rather, it’s because ACSOL aggressively sues & overturns them. Therefore you can travel in California mostly without fear of unknowingly tripping over some local land mine.

In September 2023 I was present in Northern California for three full consecutive days and two partial days on either side, so you might wonder, that’s five days so how did I do that?  Well, I entered the state on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend, so my first partial day and full day didn’t count towards the total.  

Entering California on U.S. 199 in the afternoon of Day 1, I found myself at the front of and a little line of cars that had to be escorted through the forest fire zone by a police car.  It was kind of creepy.  There was no stopping and everything in Smith River National Recreation Area was closed.  However, upon reaching the seacoast, Redwood National Park and Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park were both open and I was able to tour the Grove of Titans, the first of many giant tree groves I saw on this trip.

The bad news that day was that when I arrived at my reserved campsite in Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park the whole place was closed down on account of the fire.  Retreating to the nearby tourist town of Crescent City I came upon a low rent RV Park where I spent Night 1.

Humboldt Redwoods State Park

Redwoods National Park and Humboldt Redwoods State Park

Day 2 was Labor Day.  I traveled down the California seacoast and walked or drove through one impressive grove of giant trees after another, past one spectacular seacoast view after another.  I and some other folks who happened to be at the right place at the right time also stopped to watch a herd of elk cross U.S. 101.  

From Humboldt Redwoods State Park I backtracked to State Road 36 and traveled through Shasta-Trinity National Forest on my way to my next reserved campground.  It was Labor Day evening.

Day 3 was my first business day in California, I was passing through Redding that morning, and I had several delayed items of business to take care of, so I spent most of this day doing laundry, correcting a banking error that my Florida property manager had made a few days earlier, picking up supplies and getting a long put off oil change.  

That afternoon I was able to squeeze in a cave tour at nearby Lake Shasta Caverns.  From the visitors center you go on a boat ride to and from the cave entrance.  The tour is expensive but very nice and relatively unspoiled by human exploitation.  From there I traveled east to find a campground in Lassen National Park.

Bubbling mud at Lassen Volcanic National Park

Lassen Volcanic National Park and Lava Beds National Monument

Day 4 was Lava Day.  First up, Lassen Volcanic National Park which consists of volcano mountains, steaming sulphur vents and bubbling mud.  After taking that in it was a long uneventful drive to Lava Beds National Monument which more than makes up in massive beds of lava and spatter cones what it may lack in mud and steaming vents.  Oh – and lava tube caves, which it turns out are the main attraction at this national monument.  Because it was now mid-week and after Labor Day I easily found an unreserved campground here.

Lava Beds National Monument is quite close to the Oregon state line.  The next morning, Day 5 of my trip to California but Working Day #3, I was up early and stopped for breakfast in Merrill, OR.  Technically even that little sliver of a day had to be counted toward my California total, but it didn’t matter because I was well within the state’s stingy limit.

Lava Beds National Monument

 Oregon

Hellgate Canyon

From the 50 State Visitor Guide :

O.R.S. 2021 §§ 163.476; 163A.005 through 163A.235, O.A.R. 257-070-0005 through 257-070-0040, 291-202-0040.

Registration Triggers and Deadlines:

10 days for initial registration and updates; 10 days for a move into the state. §§163A.010 through 163A.020.

State law does not specifically address visitors. Per Oregon SOR response letter (2020), visitors are not required to register, unique among states. However, to be safe, visitors should use the 10 day rule in §163A.020 as a guideline.  There appears to be no limit on return visits per month or year.

Residency/Presence and Other Restrictions:

Residency restriction: “Sexually violent dangerous” offenders and “predatory sex offenders” may not reside “near locations where children are the primary occupants or users.”  O.A.R. 291-202-0040.

Presence restriction:  Beginning Jan. 1, 2019, neither “Sexually violent dangerous offenders” nor Level 3 offenders may enter a “premises where persons under 18 years of age regularly congregate,” including schools, childcare centers, and playgrounds. O.R.S. § 163.476

Only Level 3 offenders are placed on the public website. §163A.215

Duration & updates:

Lifetime.  Petition to remove – T1 – 5 yrs; §163A.125. Updates annually.

Beach art at sunset on the Oregon Coast

Most recent visits: Aug. & Sept. 2023

I have read enough issues of the NARSOL Digest with state reports from Oregon Voices to know it’s no picnic being on Oregon’s registry.  And yet I must also point out that, at least in its treatment of registered visitors, Oregon is one of the least harsh of the states.  

State law does not specifically address visitors. In 2020 the Florida Action Committee sent letters to every state SOR office with questions about how their registries affected out-of-state visitors.  No surprise – not many states responded to these questions.  But Oregon did respond. 

According to Oregon’s SOR response letter, visitors are not required to register, unique among states.  There is no set number of days visiting registrants can be in Oregon, and no restrictions on return visits per month or year.  Despite this, you will notice that in my 50 State Visitors guide (see above) I still recommend that to be safe, visitors should use the 10 day rule in O.R.S. §163A.020 as a guideline.

Oregon does have some residency and presence restrictions, but they apply only to Level 3 and/or so-called “sexually violent dangerous offenders.”  If you don’t fit into those categories you’re safe.

Oregon's beautiful Pacific seacoast

First pass through Oregon

On the day I entered Oregon from Washington State my first stop was the impressively named Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area.  I drove eastward on WA State Road 14 from Vancouver as far as far as U.S. 197, then crossed the Columbia River and returned mostly on I-84 which, sadly, is the main river road on the Oregon side.  Because you have a state highway, an Interstate highway and a major rail line all squeezed into this river gorge, and the river itself is a shipping route, I have to tell you it ain’t all that scenic. The setting of the Dalles Dam is nothing if not ugly.

From the Columbia Gorge I headed for Oregon’s famed Pacific seacoast which I followed from Roads End State Park south to South Beach State Park before retiring for the night.  As much as Oregon may be in the state government business it’s even more in the state park business.  It seems like they’ve turned almost every available scrap of state land into a park, which of course means there’s a fee to get in.  The good news is there is one state beach park after another as you travel the seacoast.

Clearwater Falls, near Crater Lake

On Day 2 I thought I had extra time so I headed inland to see what Oregon’s national forests are like.  Unfortunately I ran into a major forest fire, everything was closed including waterfalls and I had to turn back.  Returning to the seacoast at Florence, I followed it through Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area and points south.  

By the morning of Day 3 I was as far south as Gold Beach, only to discover that the highway I wanted to take inland (U.S. 199) to my reserved campground near Crater Lake National Park was closed due to another forest fire.  That left the “Bear Camp Coastal Route” through Siskiyou National Forest as my only option.  “Scenic” is one way to describe this mountainous one lane road with occasional turnouts. “Scary” is another.  The good news is that most of it is paved.

Crater Lake

Crater Lake National Park

Wow, spectacular.  Day 4 in Oregon was Crater Lake National Park day.  I stopped to see beautiful waterfalls in Umpqua National Forest before entering the park from the north.  From that direction the first thing you come to is the main view of the crater.  Crater Lake is a volcanic crater, not a meteor crater.  From there you can follow a ring road around the crater to see it from many angles before returning to the main view before choosing to leave to the north or south.

Unfortunately the far part of the ring road was closed for maintenance on the day I was there, so I had to turn back at Cloudcap Overlook.  One thing I’ve gotten in the habit of doing at national parks is hiking one of the easy nature trails.  Most of them are really quite good – after all they’re in national parks.  In this case it was Castle Crest Wildflower Trail.  Very nice.

The Phantom Ship

By mid-afternoon I was leaving Crater Lake by the south exit.  With a few hours on my hands I checked out Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument.  Yes it’s worthy of being a national monument.  It was the Saturday night of Labor Day weekend and I had a reserved campsite at Valley of the Rogue State Park which turned out to be a glorified I-5 rest area.  Don’t believe me?  Go see for yourself.

On my fifth and final (partial) day of my first pass through Oregon I decided to stop at Oregon Caves National Monument.  It’s 45 minutes from Cave Junction on U.S. 199 up to the cave, so buy your tickets at the Visitors Center at the junction.  Good cave and a good tour.  As you walk out the cave exit you’re invited to hike the nature trail, which I did and it’s quite beautiful.

Yes, by this time U.S. 199 was open so I could get to California, but the campground I had reserved there turned out to be closed on account of the fire.

Oregon's Outback

Second pass through Oregon

I was in California for one partial day and three full days before returning to Oregon on what was by now the return leg of my Pacific Northwest Tour.  Having spent the night before at Lava Beds National Monument in California near the state line, I entered Oregon this time near Klamath Falls and traveled east on State Road 140 to Lakeview.  On my Rand McNally map Lakeview promised a hot spring and a geyser, but like I had already seen on Montana's Flathead Reservation, they were long ago privatized into what is by now some kind of fleabag resort. *Sigh.*

Southeastern Oregon, a.k.a. Oregon’s Outback, is a remote place of stark beauty but most of that beauty is on private ranch lands.  Therefore there’s only what you can see from U.S. 395 and few places to pull over and enjoy it.  However, after the town small ranch town of Burns there were several campgrounds in Malheur National Forest and they weren’t crowded on a weeknight in September.

On Day 2 of my second pass through Oregon I continued north and east until I reached the tourist town of Baker City.  I was hoping to stop at the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center but guess what?  It’s closed for renovations until 2024!  Oh well – I continued east to see what Hells Canyon National Recreation Area is like.  And the answer is – yes there’s a lot of recreational opportunities there but the scenery is not as impressive as its name implies.  Less impressive than Oregon’s Outback where I’d been the day before.

Because it was Friday night I’d long ago made a reservation at the cheapest motel I could find online in Ontario, OR. That was a good thing too because when I pulled in the “No Vacancy” sign was flashing.

Hell's Canyon

Oregon as a temporary regional base camp

As I mentioned a few posts ago in my Pacific NW Tour Overview, I began to think that if I do this again it would be nice to establish a temporary base somewhere in the Pacific Northwest, break my travel into a few shorter excursions and spend the time in between at a comfortable base camp.

Naturally I would want to do this in a way that won’t require me to register in the state where the base camp is located.  That means I’ll need a location that will allow me to come and go 3-4 times over, let’s say, a two month period, staying put for up to a week each time, all without triggering an obligation to register in that state.  Then when I report travel at my local sheriff’s department in either Iowa or Florida, I can give them just that one location as my “destination” for the entire trip, while listing in “The Notes” section at the bottom of my sheet all the states I’m planning to visit in my excursions from that destination.  With that in my glove compartment I’ll be all set.

In the Pacific Northwest only one state meets all these requirements and that is Oregon, where State law does not specifically address visitors (see my 50 State Visitors Guide). Per an Oregon SOR office letter responding to questions by the Florida Action Committee (2020), visitors are not required to register, unique among states.  Registration is required within 10 days for a move into the state, so in my Visitors Guide I recommend not staying any longer than that for any single visit.  However there is no limit on return visits, so Oregon law allows me to follow my plan as described above.

After spending a night in the sleepy Oregon border town of Ontario I started thinking that for me at least it would make a good spot for a base camp.  The entire Northwest from Montana to the Puget Sound to California is within an easy day’s ride.  It’s a “twin city” of Payette in neighboring Idaho, so between those two and a few nearby smaller towns I’d have access to any of my daily needs, not to mention the “relatively cheaper gas” right across the state line.  Yet as a temporary Oregonian I’d be covered by the comparatively less restrictive laws there.  It all makes sense to me.

It was (partial) Day 3 of my second pass through Oregon when I left for my first foray into Idaho.  At day’s end I decided to return to Ontario for a second night to scope out where the cheapest weekly rate for comfortable accommodations might be found there, and came across a nice RV Park near the I-84 exit.  Staying an additional night in Ontario added one more partial day to my total stay in Oregon for a total of:  First Pass – five days, Second Pass – four days, separated by three days in California.  Well within Oregon’s legal requirements.

 Washington State

World's largest Sitka Spruce

From the 50 State Visitor Guide :

Rev. Code Wash. 2021 §4.24.550, §§9A.44.128 through 9A.44.145.

Registration Triggers and Deadlines:

Initial registration for permanent residents, students, and in-state workers is 3 business days from arrival; updates within 3 business days. §9A.44.130(4).

Visitors who intend to reside or be present in the state for 10 days or more must register with county sheriff within 3 business days of arrival. §9A.44.130(4)(a)(iv).

Transient registrants must re-register weekly, and report any movement to a new county for 24 hours or more within 3 business days. §9A.44.130(4).

Residency/Presence and Other Restrictions:

Residence restriction: Certain L2 and L3 offenders on supervision may not reside within 880 ft. of a school.  §9.94A.030(6)

Duration & updates:

10 years to life.  Updates:  L2&3 – 90 days; L1 – Annually. §9A.44.140.

Wildflowers at Mount Rainier National Park

Most recent visit: August 2023

Washington is one of the states that say that visitors who intend to reside or be present for 10 days or more must register within three business days of arrival.  Most of the other states that have this “3 if 10” rule also have a 30 day limit per calendar year … but Washington does not.  So that’s one less thing for you to worry about on you cross-country trip.

Also note that Washington’s few residency restrictions only apply to “L2 and L3 offenders on supervision.”  If you’re able to travel cross country freely you obviously are no longer on supervision so this doesn’t apply to you.

However, this is a good place to point out that, as with so many other states, the wording says “10 days or more.”  In other words, the 10th day triggers your obligation to register, so what you really get is nine days, not ten, and as I have said many other times, you have to assume that partial days count.  Even if you leave the state early on your last day there, as I did, that’s still a partial day and you have to count it toward your total.

So including that last partial day, I was going to spend five days in Washington – well within the allowable limit.

When I entered the state on a Saturday morning on I-90 at Spokane, my only intention for Day 1 was to cross the emptiness of eastern Washington to reach my reserved campground in Wenatchee National Forest so I could spend as much of Day 2 as possible at Mount Rainer.  It so happened that this day-long drive with few distractions coincided with a Florida Action Committee Zoom Conference which I participated in by phone as I was zooming through this remote Outback.

Tahoma

Mount Rainier National Park

Mount Rainier is, of course, a large and majestic volcano which is called Tahoma by the native people of the region (from which the city of Tacoma derives its name).  I was pleased to see that – unlike Glacier National Park – Tahoma still has glaciers near its peak.  

I traveled through this park from east to west, first viewing the volcano from the north at Sunrise Visitor Center, then following the main park road around the south to take in the view at Paradise Inn.  As with most national parks, there’s more to Tahoma than just the mountain.  I stopped to take a look at Box Canyon, Christine Falls and to walk the Trail of the Shadows.

All this took most of Day 2 but still left enough time to hurry over to the east side of the Olympic Peninsula to camp close to my next destination.

Hoh Rainforest

Olympic National Park

One thing to know about Olympic National Park is that there’s no E Z tourist drive through it.  You have to use U.S. 101 (Pacific Coast Highway) to circle around the park and use several access roads that extend like the spokes of a wheel into the park’s attractions like Hurricane Ridge, Sol Duc Hot Springs (and waterfall), Hoh Rainforest and Quinault Rainforest.

Wow the rainforests are spectacular!  You have to be willing to get out of your car and at least walk the nature trails to see them, but if you do you’ll never forget it.  Since I was traveling south along the Pacific seacoast, these rainforests became the first of about a week’s worth of majestic giant trees and forests.  

Altogether it took me 1 1/2 days to drive each of the spokes into Olympic and see it all.  The second day took me to my very first view of the Pacific Ocean at Ruby Beach (“Ocean in View – O the Joy!”).  Continuing south on the Coast Highway I tried to stop at as many ocean viewpoints as possible before the highway turned inland, skirting the Quinault Reservation on my way to Olympic’s last stop for me, Quinault Rainforest.

Ruby Beach

There are several Indian reservations on the Olympic peninsula but like many elsewhere they are located primarily off the main roads, the people there are not interested in being your tourist attraction and they generally turn a cold shoulder to the Pacific Coast Highway.

From Olympic I traveled south on U.S. 101 but skipped the Lewis & Clark NHP Interpretive Center to get to my last campground at Paradise Point State Park at a reasonable hour.  When I woke the next morning and headed for the Columbia River Gorge it was my fifth and last (partial) day in Washington State, well within my allowable nine days in this beautiful state.  Next stop – Oregon.

Montana

Kootenai Falls State Park

From the 50 State Visitor Guide :

Mont. Code Ann. 2021  §§46-23-504 through 46-23-520.

Registration Triggers and Deadlines:

Three business days for initial registration and updates; transients shall register within 3 business days of entering state.  

Visitors: Must register within 3 business days of entering the state for a temporary residence of 10 days or more, or for an aggregate period of 30 days in calendar year.  §§46-23-504, 46-23-505.

Residency/Presence and Other Restrictions:

None

Duration & updates:

Life. Petition to remove – T1 - 10 yrs; T2 – 25 yrs.

 Updates by mail: T1 – annual; T2 – 6 months; T3 –90 days; Transients in person- 30 days.  §§46-23-504, 56-23-506.

Most recent visit - August 2023

Triceratops skulls at the Museum of the Rockies, Bozeman MT

For registered visitors Montana is a relative safe haven among Northwestern states.  While it’s true that anyone moving to this state must register within three business days, if you are only visiting you get nine consecutive days to visit (because the tenth day triggers your obligation to register) and return visits are permitted up to 30 days aggregate per calendar year.  Furthermore, there are no residency or presence restrictions to be concerned about, at least at the state level.

All this means that Montana is your best staging point for a visit to Yellowstone National Park.  Wyoming, where most of Yellowstone is located, allows you only two consecutive business days in-state (because the third day triggers).  So stage yourself in nearby Montana on a Thursday, enter Yellowstone early on Friday (in both states any partial day in-state is going to count toward your total, so make the most of those first and last partial days), enjoy America’s most famous national park over the weekend, and return to Montana late on Monday.  

If you want to return to Yellowstone, stay in Montana two nights and one complete calendar day, and you can restart the clock in Wyoming.  Or see what Montana has to offer from Tuesday to Thursday before restarting the clock for a second extended Yellowstone weekend.  Either way, just be mindful of your time in Montana because, while 30 days (including partial days) aggregate per calendar year isn’t too restrictive, it is after all a limit.

Speaking of what Montana has to offer, I decided to find out as part of my 2023 Pacific Northwest tour.  Having spent the previous night at Badlands National Park in South Dakota, I entered the state on U.S. 212 in far southeastern Montana.  I traveled west through the remote High Plains until I reached Little Bighorn National Monument where I took the auto tour.  By the way this national monument is located within the Crow Reservation.  

Continuing west on I-90 I spent my first night at the Columbus, MT town campground (donations accepted).  Day 2 of my Montana journey took me to the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, then up to my primary Montana destination, Glacier National Park. Unable to find a campsite on public lands I turned to Red Eagle Campground on the Blackfeet Reservation.  

Mountains shrouded in clouds at Glacier National Park

Glacier National Park

The first thing you should know about Glacier National Park is that it is, of course, magnificent.  The clouds shrouded the jagged mountains such that I thought I must be taking the road tour through Middle Earth.  At the mountain peaks (the U.S. Continental Divide) it was cold even at mid-day – I was glad I’d brought gloves and winter clothing just in case.  However, the sad news is that due to global warming there are no longer any glaciers in Glacier National Park, at least not that I saw.

The second thing you should know is that as with most great national parks, this one is very crowded during peak season.  I was at first distressed to find they were only allowing “reserved admissions” between 6:00 am and 3:00 pm daily.  Since it was mid-week I figured they might not be rigorously enforcing that and sure enough when I slid past the gatehouse at 7:30 am it wasn’t even open yet so I went right in.

Siyeh Creek, Glacier National Park

Nevertheless Glacier National Park was quite crowded that day.  I found it impossible to find parking anywhere close to the main visitor center at Logan Pass.  In fact people were parking street-side over half a mile away, so I decided to skip that even though it meant missing out on a freezing cold mountaintop tundra hike. With some effort I was able to find parking at other stops along the main park road.

Perhaps this is why Glacier runs frequent shuttle bus service along the length of the main road all the way from Agpar Visitor Center to St. Mary’s.  It has stops at every major point of interest along the park road. The only catch is you’ll need to plan your trip so you park at the big parking lot at one of the park entrances and return there at the end of the day to continue on your Pacific Northwest journey.

One last thing about Glacier – it abuts Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada, these two parks comprise an International Peace Park, and citizens of both countries are free to travel anywhere in either park without going through Customs.  However, there are no internal roads linking the two parks so you’ll have to backpack at least 20 miles if you want to cross over into Waterton Lakes.  I’m too old for that.

Little Big Horn National Monument, Crow Reservation

Reservation Tourism in Montana

My visit to Montana included three reservations.  First was the Crow Reservation where the Little Big Horn National Monument is located.  This reservation also includes the Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area but that’s quite remote and difficult to access by road.  Upon leaving Little Big Horn I got right on I-90 and headed west, which means I really saw very little of the reservation.

The second reservation I passed through was the Blackfeet Reservation.  I saw more of this reservation because I passed through the largest town, Browning, at a time in the evening when I was searching for supper.  I found a drive thru that claimed to have buffalo burgers but, sadly, they were out of them.  Aside from that, Browning has all the usual attributes of a reservation town such as unadorned architecture, a food co-op, health center, native bank and billboards proclaiming national identity.  It also has the Museum of the Plains Indian and I would have liked to have seen that but it was already closed for the night.

The third reservation I visited was the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes Flathead Reservation, on my fifth day in Montana.  Being curious, I stopped in the little town of Hot Springs to see if there was really a hot spring there, which there is but unfortunately it was long ago privatized and incorporated into what’s by now a fleabag hotel.  

National Bison Range, Flathead Reservation

The principle town of this reservation is Polson, but it’s not really a reservation town.  It’s really a European enclave town with all manner of commercial chains, hotels, fast food and recreation infrastructure geared around Flathead Lake, which despite its name has nothing to do with the reservation.  It’s a lake created by a hydro-electric dam.

My last stop on the Flathead Reservation was the National Bison Range, which redeemed every other disappointment of the day.  It’s great!  It was unclear which “nation” is referred to in the name, but I do hope it’s the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation and not the United States.

Upon leaving the Flathead Reservation I got on I-90 and headed west into Idaho.  This was a partial day but it still counted as Day 5 in Montana.  Well within the state’s limits.

 Overview - the 2023 Pacific Northwest Tour

I have just returned from my most ambitious travel of 2023, a tour of the Pacific Northwest which took four weeks.  Never been there before, everyone said You Must Go, so I went and it was everything everyone promised.  In the coming days I will be describing the registry rules for visiting states I have never written about before, hoping to provide insights into how you can travel too and stay within those rules.

First I want to point out that yes, you can travel for extended trips across this great country and unless your local sheriff is a total creep there should be no problem provided you properly report this travel before you leave.  In fact this wasn’t even the longest travel I have ever done from my summer home in Iowa.  That record belongs - so far - to a six week trip to Florida last spring which I reported not as a seasonal move to my winter homes there with no return date, but as travel from my Iowa principal residence to Florida and back.  I provided my local sheriff’s department here with two destinations in the Sunshine State (two of my residences there) and a return date.  When I arrived in Florida I checked in as usual, traveled wherever I wanted and checked out when I left.

In fact, about one month from now I plan to report my entire five month seasonal travel to my winter homes in Florida as travel from Iowa to Florida and back.  I don’t anticipate any difficulty doing that – but I’ll definitely report how it goes here.

In the past I have found that even in the peak summer travel season it’s not necessary to make campground or motel reservations for weekdays, but it is important to have the weekends all squared away.  That still leaves my travel plans flexible most days.  You may say – Oh wait!  Won’t my local sheriff’s department want a complete itinerary that accounts for all my movements on every freaking day of my trip?  My answer is, again, that unless your local sheriff is a total creep the answer should be no.  I am unaware of any state law that requires such a detailed itinerary for domestic travel, so if you run into trouble you should not be afraid to tell the person behind the bulletproof glass that state law doesn’t authorize that much detail.  As far as I know that stuff only applies to international travel.

On the other hand, if you have made reservations for any night of your trip you have at least one destination you can report to make them happy.  In my case there were three weekends included and one of them was Labor Day.  I did not feel compelled to report every one of those reserved destinations; instead I told the lady who usually takes down my information, “Here’s what I’m doing, these are my departure and return dates.  Now I’d like to give you three destinations, one for each weekend, and I want to tell you the states I will be traveling through and ask you to list those states in ‘The Notes’ section at the bottom of my sheet.”  Which she was happy to do.

Now you may ask why would I want to provide any more information than the minimum required?  Because if you think about it you will realize that my registry sheet showing at least a few destinations and all the states I’m traveling through is my protection against police harassment and false arrest while traveling.  I keep it in my glove compartment at all times, and clearly, if I were ever pulled over by some moron I would have to hand them my registry sheets anyway (Iowa and Florida) and right there is all the proof I need that I properly reported my travel and that I am where I said I’d be when I said I’d be there.  Case closed.

So off I went on my big adventure.

Establishing a temporary regional base camp

I must admit that by the time I was about halfway through my four week trip I was already feeling a little road weary.  I began to think that if I do this again it would be nice to establish a temporary base somewhere in the Pacific Northwest, break my travel into a few shorter excursions and spend the time in between at a comfortable base camp.

Naturally I would want to do this in a way that won’t require me to register in the state where the base camp is located.  That means I’ll need a location that will allow me to come and go 3-4 times over, let’s say, a two month period, staying put for up to a week each time, all without triggering an obligation to register in that state.  Then when I report travel at my local sheriff’s department in either Iowa or Florida, I can give them just that one location as my “destination” for the entire trip, while listing in “The Notes” section at the bottom of my sheet all the states I’m planning to visit in my excursions from that destination.  With that in my glove compartment I’ll be all set.

In the Pacific Northwest only one state meets all these requirements and that is Oregon, where State law does not specifically address visitors (see my 50 State Visitors Guide). Per an Oregon SOR office letter responding to questions by the Florida Action Committee (2020), visitors are not required to register, unique among states.  Registration is required within 10 days for a move into the state, so in my Visitors Guide I recommend not staying any longer than that for any single visit.  However there is no limit on return visits, so Oregon law allows me to follow my plan as described above.

Later in my 2023 Pacific Northwest Tour I passed through the sleepy little town of Ontario OR on the Idaho border and decided, for reasons I will explain in more detail when I write about Oregon, that it would be a good base camp for me.  I found an RV Park there with low weekly rates and all the amenities I might need for my future base camp, and left with their business card and price list.

What about other regions of the U.S.?

By now you may be asking yourself, suppose you want to pursue this kind of extended travel using a base camp, but in a different region of the U.S.?  Are there states in other regions that could serve as a base for regional travel?  The answer is, sometimes yes, sometimes maybe.

Let’s start with the Southwest, just to show you how tricky this can be.  Most states in this region have pretty short registration deadlines, but two states present themselves as possibilities.  First is Nevada, and presumably Las Vegas if one of your excursions will be to the Grand Canyon or the great national parks of Utah.  

However, staying in Nevada means putting your trust in that state’s Visitor’s Registry which claims to let you stay up to 30 consecutive days per visit without landing on their permanent registry, and with no limit on number of return visits per year.  That’s the claim, and I have visited the Las Vegas Metro Police Dept. to confirm that this Visitors Registry really exists (see my Nevada blogs), but I haven’t actually tested this system out although I plan to in the future.  If you try it first I’d be very interested to know how that worked out.

The other possibility is Colorado, which allows 14 business days per visit but not more than 30 days total per calendar year.  That means you need to be mindful of the total number of days you will spend at your base camp (you might try Durango, see my Colorado Train Rides blog).

In the Upper Midwest allow me to suggest either Wisconsin (10 days per visit, no limit on return visits per year) or Minnesota (14 days per visit but not more than 30 days total per calendar year).  As a resident of Iowa I don’t need to worry about this but I definitely would not suggest my state (five business days) as a base camp location.

As for the South Central U.S. allow me to suggest, believe it or not, Texas.  There it’s not more than six days per locality (because the 7th day triggers your obligation to register) but with no limit on return visits per year.  Just don’t stay at your base camp more than six consecutive days before taking off on your next excursion, and when your return you can restart the clock at the same location you were before.

Turning to the Northeast U.S. I find myself surprised to recommend the state of my birth, New Jersey.  Their registry sucks but visitors can stay up to nine days (because the 10th day triggers) and there is no limit on return visits per year.  I have a place to stay any time I want at my sister-in-law’s house but you’re on your own.  

Another Northeast possibility is Pennsylvania where the law is silent about visitors but does say that your presence in the state for more than 30 days per calendar year establishes you as a resident.  That means you need to be mindful of the total number of days you will spend at your PA base camp.

Lastly there is the Southeast, where all the registries suck and you don’t want to land on any of them.  As I have said elsewhere, DO NOT COME TO FLORIDA.  However, Georgia or North Carolina suggest themselves as possible locations for a seasonal base camp.  Georgia is 14 consecutive days or 30 days total per calendar year.  Like Pennsylvania, just be mindful of the total number of days you will spend at your GA base camp.  

North Carolina’s law says that you establish residency if you are in their state for 15 days.  The law sets no limit per month or year, but I worry that if I were to make repeated visits to a base camp there some local sheriff might take exception to that.  At least with Georgia you know what you’re getting into and you can plan to stay within their limits.