Highway 37 crosses to the north side of the Kootenai River at Libby, then follows it until the bend, about 13 miles east. The ranger station is just about a mile west of the bend, on the north side of the highway. This is one of six Montana ranger stations within the Kootenai National Forest. With knowledgeable people manning the station, they can provide a wealth of information on the area, what to do, what to see, where to camp, and even what bait to use this month.
The Kootenai National Forest is located in the extreme Northwest corner of Montana and Northeast Idaho and encompasses over 2.2 million acres, an area nearly three times the size of Rhode Island. The Forest is bordered on the north by British Columbia, Canada, and on the west by Idaho. Of the total acres, 50,384 are within the State of Idaho. Access into the Forest is via U.S. Highways 2 and 93 and Montana State Highways 37, 56, 200 and 508.
Ranges of high craggy peaks mark the Forest with Snowshoe Peak in the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness at 8,738 feet, the highest point. The Whitefish Range, Purcell Mountains, Bitterroot Range, Salish Mountains, and Cabinet Mountains are all part of the rugged terrain radiating from the river valleys. In the north central part of the Forest, the land is more open with gently rolling timbered hills lying in the shadows of the Whitefish Range.
Read more at the Forest Service