Smith River
River · White Sulphur Springs, Montana
Fifty-nine miles of river between Camp Baker and Eden Bridge that can only be floated with a permit, and the permit is drawn by lottery — several thousand applications a year for a little over a thousand launches, which makes it one of the hardest river permits in the American West. The Smith runs through a limestone canyon with walls several hundred feet high, past pictographs and caves, with almost no road access along its length. It is a four to five day trip, you carry everything, and there is no way out in the middle.
Camp Baker to Eden Bridge, White Sulphur Springs, Montana, 59645, United States
PERMIT ONLY, and there is no legal way to float without one. The season runs roughly late April to early July and ends when snowmelt drops — in a low-snow year it can finish by mid-June. Permits are drawn by lottery, applied for in winter for the following season, with several thousand applications for a little over a thousand launches. Licensed outfitters hold their own allocation and are the realistic route for most visitors. The only road access is at Camp Baker and Eden Bridge, fifty-nine miles apart.