The Great State of Montana

 Today (Sept 29^th) is laundry day, which we have learned is also the best time to update our blog; so since we have roughly 10 days of clothing, our goal is to update our blog every 10 days!

We are currently in a laundromat in West Yellowstone Montana.  Its been an exciting day thus far, as we learned Kendra’s credit card was hacked; someone tried to spend over $15,000 on it from various locations in the USA and the UK. 

We seem to be getting into a good routine now and are excited to enter Yellowstone National Park!

 

September19th – Going to the Sun

We woke up in one of the largest campgrounds in Glacier National Park, it was so large it had a shower building, with two showers for 300 campsites! Thankfully we showered the day we arrived at a random time so the showers were not occupied.

We woke up early and started to drive the Going to the Sun Road, the famous road specifically designed by the US government to showcase the beauty of Glacier National Park from the comfort of your automobile, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t stretch our legs a bit.  We had previously asked what hikes we should do from visitor information and were told the two most popular hikes, a hike known as Avalanche and a hike that starts at the highest point on the road to Hidden Lake, but we were told it would be very difficult to find parking.

We lucked out with Parking at the Avalanche hike and saw a clear lake surrounded by mountains at the end.  We were a little less lucky at Logan Pass, the point of highest elevation, as there was no parking spots available with tens of cars driving around in infinite loops, like vultures ready to attack anyone who started to walk towards a parked car and defend any spot they felt entitled to.  We gave up this game as we didn’t want to be so aggressive with the other motorists or fellow hikers just trying to get back to their vehicles. 

About a half mile down the road was another pull out and as luck would have it someone was pulling out as we approached.

  We took the spot and hiked up to Logan pass to do the Hidden Lake hike!

Glacier National Park, especially the Going to the Sun Road is amazing and a must do!  So many beautiful sights and pull outs, it reminds me of Highway 93 (Icefields Parkway) between Jasper and Banff.

When we got to the end of the Going to the Sun Road, we noticed that there were two campgrounds that still had spots available, one very close to where the Going to the Sun Road had ended; St. Mary’s, and another in a different section of the park called Many Glaciers.  Paul decided that we should camp in Many Glaciers, which ended up being a mistake, although the park was beautiful the rain had started and the campground was full. In reality, the campground had not been full for a while so they were getting ready to transition it to primitive winter camping by shutting down one of the loops, essentially eliminating half of the campsites in the campground for the remainder of the season.  Frustratingly, by the time we got back to St. Mary’s that campground was also full.  By luck we ended up finding a campground that was closed for the season outside the park that allowed us to stay in their campground for virtually nothing (compared to $83/night up the road at the KOA…yikes!).

Our timing couldn’t have been better as after we had set up and had dinner the weather turned with hail and rain lasting most of the night.

 

September 20^th – Chasing Waterfalls in Glacier National Park

We debated about going back into the Many Glaciers section of the park but in the end decided against it as all the hikes were very long (around 15 kilometers) and it was only 2 degrees.  It did not rain in many areas of the National Park, instead it had snowed which was not something we were prepared (or willing) to tackle.  Thankfully, one of the other questions we had asked at Visitors Information was what hikes are not popular but should be or which hikes have pretty views without having to exert too much effort to get to the views. We were informed of three waterfalls that were within 5 kilometers of each other and would make a great day hike.  We were sold. 

This was a great hike, although not all the waterfalls were “worth it’ (Baring falls was meh), the combinations of them all as well as seeing the largest waterfall, Virginia falls made it a great choice.

When we crossed back through Logan Pass Kendra wanted to get a picture with the dusting of snow that had fallen overnight, however the parking lot was worse than West Edmonton Mall on Boxing Day- see above description-(aka-tons of vehicles circling around still, people stopping in the middle of the road to the exit in the hopes someone will come and they can take their spot). Kendra hopped out of the van while Paul said he would meet her near the sign, this was easier said than done as Paul was stuck behind a line of vehicles hoping to get a spot. Kendra got her picture, waited a bit for Paul to pick her up, then decided to cross the road and wait there for Paul.  Lucky for her, a kind gentleman with a cute dog offered her a ride, after only a minute or two of sticking her thumb out, in their minivan and they rode off into the chilly day.

One other notable event was a black bear on the Going to the Sun Road.  Now usually we do not stop for photos of wildlife, but with one lane in each direction and no shoulder to drive on, we were forced to stop and take pictures as the bear walked by our van on the other side of the road.  We debated about getting out of our vehicle and feeding it, but decided Yogi was probably looking for a bigger pic-a-nic than we could offer (just kidding, we would never feed the wildlife and ruin the nature).

Unfortunately, it was time to leave Glacier National Park as the snow had made us want to get out of the Mountains, so after a few interesting stops, specifically a Ten Commandments “Museum’ in Columbia Falls, a stop to try some huckleberry pie (the pie crust was just doughy pastry and the filling was okay) and some grocery shopping in Big Fork, we found a camping spot right on the Swan River.  This spot was beautiful and, even as we are writing this, has remained our favourite camping spot of the trip thus far due to the wildlife we saw (deer) who didn’t mind our presence, the mountains in the distance and the calm river sights and sounds.

 

September 21^st – Camping with a View

We had been told the Big Fork MT was like Banff, but without the mountains; this description intrigued us so we spent the morning there.  It definitely was cute with some touristy shops but nothing that would make us stay for more than a few hours.  Our favourite spot was the Brewery, the beers were okay, but the view was amazing as it overlooked Flathead Lake.  We ended up sitting at this brewery for a couple hours having a couple beers and eating multiple pretzels with beer cheese.  DELICIOUS!! There was also a quaint shop that sold preserves and syrups, so we got a jar of huckleberry preserves (significantly better than the pie the previous day).

As we didn’t see much reason to stay in Big Fork any longer, we hit the road looking for a camping spot.  We stopped at the US Forest Ranger station to question about “dispersed” aka free campsites and how to find them.  We were given a list of ones in that specific area and decided to venture out to the furthest one away. After arriving at the free campsite and looking at our favourite app, iOverlander, Kendra was able to find one that looked incredible just a 10 minute drive from where we thought we would stay, a spot on top of a mountain were an old fire lookout used to be. 

Watching sunset from this spot will always be a highlight!

 

September 22^nd – Rural Montana Hospitality

We woke up in the rain and knew that today it was going to rain all day and barely get into double digit temperatures.  We had already decided that today was going to be the day we stayed in a hotel but were not 100% sure where we would stay.  In most major centres, hotels still started at $150 USD and we wanted a room closer to $100 USD. 

While looking at the map Paul noticed that there was a small hotel in the community of Ovando, MT.  The town sign said the population was “around 50” and according to guidebooks the community was home to Trixi’s Antler Saloon, A Montana Institution, whatever that meant.  Paul phoned up the hotel and was happy to hear that there was availability (in the 6 room hotel) and that the rooms were dog friendly.  Best of all the price was $100 USD.

We arrived to the hotel before noon, which didn’t seem to be an issue and vegged out, getting caught up on the world as we listened the rain pour. 

Around 4pm we headed to the saloon for a few drinks and dinner. Both the walk to the saloon and the people of the saloon made us realize that we were in a red area of a red state with everyone holding very different ideological ideas then us; however, they showed us amazing hospitality.

We spent the evening chatting, and playing bar games like Shake-a-Day, where you spend $1 to shake some dice and if you get a Yahtzee, you get the growing pot of money, which at Trixi’s was around $1400.  We didn’t’ win.

At the end of the night, we went up to pay and instead we were told that the people we had been talking to had paid for our drinks, our meals and given us a sticker for our van so that we wouldn’t forget Ovando and the good people who live there.  I don’t think we ever will forget Ovando.

September 23^rd – America Sized

We woke up well rested, warm, dry and ready to hit the road.  We had learned of a small ghost town just south west of Ovando called Garnet that was supposed to be worth a visit before we made our way to the State Capital; Helena.

Before leaving Ovando we were told we had to eat breakfast at the café across the road, which is one of a handful of sit down meals we have had in the US, and the portions were out of control. We decided to get their breakfast specialty

Biscuits and Gravy.  Don’t get us wrong, they were delicious, (we could only imagine the Cholesterol, Fat and Sodium in them) but there was no way we could finish the meal, even though we tried, and boy did we try. After stuffing our face we waddled out of the restaurant and didn’t eat another meal until around 7pm.

Garnet was neat, it was a collection of old abandoned buildings that were taken care of by the US government.  Each building had a little plaque explaining its purpose and who lived there.  Our favourite building was the old hotel, known back in the day as the Wells Hotel, which Paul is sure is haunted.  Definitely gave some eerie vibes.

We then headed to the interstate, which is the first time we had been on an interstate as drivers.  Well just as the food is bigger than in Canada the speed limits are higher than in Canada.  On the interstate the speed limit is almost 130 km/h.  It seemed like in no time we were in Helena.

We didn’t spend must time in Helena, instead we went to a Speakeasy brewery that someone in Ovando recommended we see (definitely had some of the best beer we have had in the US).  Then found a campsite for the night.

 

September 24^th – A slight change of plans

We had plans to see Helena in the morning then drive to Bozeman in the afternoon, with hopes of being in Yellowstone the day after that.  We were looking forward to nights where we didn’t have to wear long underwear with every single blanket, as although the days were warm, nights were rarely above 5 degrees.

We wandered around downtown Helena and found a cute coffeeshop with free Wi-Fi where Kendra had the forethought to see what our options were in Yellowstone. We quickly learned that all campsites in both Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park (just south of Yellowstone) were by reservation only (and the earliest we could get a campsite (in the whole park) was September 29^th.  We had to slow down a bit.

Lucky for us there was a Soap Box Derby occurring in Helena and the whole community was downtown enjoying the festivities.  There was food and beer vendors (you could drink on the street), bands and of course Soap Box racers.  It was an unexpected day that we felt fortunate to be a part of.

 

September 25^th – Still in Helena

It felt odd to still be in Helena when we woke up.  We had already planned to be far further south and we didn’t quite know what we should do.  We decided to take a look at the State Building, which was interesting, very reminiscent of any of the prairie legislatures then headed to Canyon Ferry Lake. 

We felt a little aimless today, so we ended up finding a camping spot right on the lake and spent the rest of the day playing games and reading.

 

September 26^th – Off to Bozeman

We woke up and headed to the city of Bozeman, a college town with a flourishing downtown with cafes and bars and local niche shops.  It was great to wander around going in and out of shops and watching/eavesdropping on college students.  Oh, it took us back to our own undergrad.

We then decided to do a few hikes just south of Bozeman in the Hyalite Canyon area, where we saw two waterfalls surrounded by some dynamic mountains.  It was a fine day and even ended with us sitting around a fire watch the sun go down.

 

September 27^th – Unsuccessful Shopping

Paul has been concerned with our camp stove regulator for the last few days and wanted to purchase a new one and with Bozeman being a larger city with many outdoors stores he thought it would be an easy task to find a new regulator. 

Issues would involve too much propane getting to the burners resulting in a massive flame or propane leaking from the hose as a liquid and smelling up the van.

After 4 hours and countless stores we did not find what we needed, however in the time we did learn the actual name of what we were looking for, a camp stove propane regulator (at the beginning of the day Paul was showing people what he was looking for and explaining what it looks like).  We also learned why we were having issues with it as the regulator was getting saturated with propane due to how we were hanging it.

Time will tell if the changes we make to how we are hanging the propane line will fix the issues, but at the time of writing this, so far so good.

We then drove to Ennis MT, where there was a western looking downtown and cheap camping right on the River.  It was a good call, as the temperature was around 28 degrees all day so sitting in a river with a beer in our hand was the right way to spend the day (after exploring Ennis that is-aka checking out the local distillery).

 

September 28^th – I guess we are in the off season

The reason we had stayed in Ennis was because it was close to the community of Virginia City and Nevada City.  These two frontier communities had been preserved to look similar to how they looked in the late 1800’s.

We arrived quasi early ready to spend the day exploring, but both communities were more or less closed for the season.  Nevada City was just a ghost town so we couldn’t explore it at all as it was fenced off.  People still live in Virginia City so there were a couple things open, like a gift store and the local bar.  We ended up spending our time reading plaques on the historical buildings. 

The most interesting ones, for us, had to do with a couple who lived in Virginia City in the late 1800s and early 1900s.  They had purchased various buildings and companies within the community, but in 1903 Montana put in a law stating the people couple not marry outside their race, and that if they had their marriage would be nullified.  Well, this couple happened to be of two different races and they were no longer married. 

An interesting character we encountered in Virginia City was sitting right outside of the saloon at 11 am.  Cooper, the golden lab that wanders around town, made friends with Rupert and followed us for a good chunk of our time.  Rupert wasn’t thrilled by Cooper’s presence but they managed to share the dog water bowls left out of businesses and didn’t pull any vigilante moves on each other (this town was known for vigilante’s and the justice that goes along with them when it was a mining town).

Just a reminder of the way of the world in the early 1900s.

As most things were closed we ended up leaving far earlier than we had planned, so we made our way just outside of West Yellowstone MT, excited to see another national park.