365 will take you to a fire lookout on Blue Mountain. The lookout is staffed in the summer and company is welcome. The staff can explain the equipment that's used to spot forest fires. Firefighting - Historical Visitors' Centers When fires burn throughout the Northwest, there isn't any place hotter than the Aerial Fire Depot and Smokejumper Base on Highway 10 just west of Missoula. The depot pulses with incoming and outgoing airplanes ferrying firefighters and supplies to combat blazes from Alaska to Florida.
Visitors are welcome to tour the depot and watch a video explaining smokejumping.
During the winter, the station shelters between 200 and 300 horses and mules that still are used in the Forest Service's firefighting efforts and other backcountry work. No 33 follows an old trail that was used to drive sheep along a ridge top. It's a rare example of the ridgetop roads that once were common in area forests. The dirt road, between Alberton and Lolo Creek, can be dusty in the dry summer and fall months. The Eastside Highway offers a less hectic and more scenic impression of the Bitterroot Valley as well as access to the Lee Metcalf National Wildlife Refuge.