“Go outside. The worst that can happen is a bear kills you.” – I saw this on a bumper sticker on an RV when we were driving from Montana to Wyoming, and it cracked me up.
Plenty of time outside on this trip. No bear sightings. Check.
For those counting, we were only home in Austin for 12 days after our month-long trip to Europe before leaving again. Not surprisingly, we headed to cooler climates. Texas in August is just not a place that I want to be. We flew into Bozeman, Montana (via a connection in Denver) on Friday night, and I loved the vibe of the small airport there, which looked like a mountain lodge. After picking up our rental car for the trip, which we dubbed “The Beast” due to the large size of the SUV, we headed to our hotel located off the highway on the north side of town (our first of 4 different hotels in Bozeman for this trip).
When checking in, I picked up the August issue of the Bozeman Magazine from the lobby. According to one of the articles, here’s the “Top 10 things you must do when visiting Bozeman this summer:”
- Get out on the water
- Soak in the Bozeman Hot Springs
- Hike to the ‘M’
- Take a trail run
- Visit the Museum of the Rockies
- Eat out!
- Dance down Main Street
- Visit a gallery
- Shop the farmer’s markets
- Get your fly wet
Turns out that we covered 7 of the 10 activities during our time here!
We jumped right in on Saturday morning when we met one of our friends from Austin, who recently moved to Bozeman, for a hike at Middle Cottonwood Trailhead in the Bridger Mountains north of town. We were thankful that we had “The Beast” for the drive on the gravel road (through private property) to the trailhead. While the initial trail was pretty short, it connected to various other trails to provide options for longer hikes. We hiked three miles out and back, and we enjoyed catching up with Katie over those six miles.
Climbing a mountain always works up an appetite, and we were eager for lunch once we finished. We opted to grab lunch near the hotel rather than head into downtown, and we ended up at The Club Tavern & Grill (located at the Best Western) thanks to the FindMe GF app. I thoroughly enjoyed my burger with GF bun and sweet potato fries. We left just as the local crowd started to gather to watch the MSU football game (Week 0 of college football season). After lunch, Kurt settled in for an afternoon of watching football, while I relaxed at the hotel until we ventured out again for dinner at Yo Poké Fusion.
We got an early start on Sunday morning so that we could run at Sourdough Canyon (at the recommendation of a friend) before driving to Wyoming. Located off of Nash Rd. at Sourdough Canyon Rd. just south of Bozeman, it is an old logging road that runs next to Bozeman Creek. This was a great trail with gradual elevation gain to do an out-and back run. Like yesterday’s hike, we opted for 3 miles out and back for 6 miles total, although the trail continues up all the way to Mystic Lake (8 miles to the lake). Even though it’s a fairly popular trail, it’s important to stay bear aware, given that there was a piece of paper with dates listed of the most recent bear sightings at the trailhead. It was clear that not everyone heeded that warning as there were many dogs off-leash which seems like asking for trouble in bear country. The trail had a few rocky sections, so next time I would wear a sturdier pair of road running shoes or even my trail running shoes (but, I did okay in my lightweight running shoes). Kurt was coming off some extended downtime, and this run tested his low level of fitness and even resulted in a slight spill and tumble from tripping over a rock at the end of the run. Thankfully, the damage was mostly superficial, and he ended up with a few scrapes and dusty (but fortunately not torn) clothing.
I was really glad that we made the effort to explore and get a run in that morning before our five-hour drive to Gillette, WY that afternoon. We stopped for lunch at Your Pie in Laurel, MT just outside of Billings (GF pizza available). The aforementioned bumper sticker gave us a chuckle on the drive.
We arrived in Gillette in the late afternoon on Sunday in time for dinner, and we retraced our steps back to Bozeman after breakfast on Friday morning. In between, we spent the week at Kurt’s brother’s house, which was our escape in summer 2020 and 2021 during the pandemic. Kurt worked remotely during the week while we were there, while I spent time with his nephew’s dog (who I want to steal).
On our return drive to Bozeman on Friday, we stopped at Greycliff Mill for lunch, another FindMe GF app success. Not only was the location unique (more on that in a minute), but the made-to-order panini sandwiches were yummy (GF sourdough bread available). We also made a brief stop at the on-site market where samples of fresh cheese were available, but unfortunately, we didn’t have time to visit the cheese cave.
The historic timber frame that is now home to the Greycliff Mill is a classic hand-hewn New World Dutch barn, built originally circa 1740 in the Mohawk River valley of upper New York state. In 1781, during the American Revolution, the British army raided and burned the farms and fields of the Mohawk River valley in an effort to deprive the American Continental army of its food supply. Miraculously, this barn survived this 18th century devastation and went on to serve generations of American farming families well into the 21st century. Still standing after well over 250 years, the barn was carefully dismantled, salvaged, and restored. In 2021 the New World Dutch barn was re-erected here in Greycliff, Montana.
Our visit to Greycliff Mill was shorter than I would have liked because Kurt was on a mission to get to Bozeman in order to maximize his time at Museum of the Rockies before the 5pm closure. The dinosaur exhibit, overseen until June 30, 2016 by Dr. Jack Horner of Jurassic Park fame, is unmatched (and, this is said in the context of having recently visited the Natural History Museum in London). One reason is because the northern Rockies, especially Montana and the surrounding states and provinces, are home to a large number of dinosaur excavation sites due to its location along the prehistoric inland sea in the time of the dinosaurs and more recent geologic activity that exposed the fossil beds. An enormous T-Rex skeleton currently dominates the exhibit, but visitors can see the fossilized bones of several species, many of which were found in Montana. Another impressive piece of the collection is a series of triceratops skulls at different developmental stages.
We arrived at the museum around 2:30pm, and we were greeted by Big Mike outside. “Big Mike,” also known as MOR 555, a Tyrannosaurus rex, was discovered in 1988 near Montana’s Fort Peck Reservoir.
My friend from Nashville, who came out to join us for the Labor Day weekend, met us at the museum shortly thereafter. We made our way through the crown jewel of the museum, the Siebel Dinosaur Complex, then she and I spent some time catching up while Kurt squeezed every last minute that he could out of his time there. The centerpiece of the exhibit has to be the mounted real skeleton of Montana’s T. rex (MOR 980) that was discovered in the Hell Creek Formation, McCone County, Montana on July 4, 1997. Montana’s T. rex is an adult that stands at approximately 12 feet high and is 38 feet long. The skeleton is approximately 60% real bone (in order to differentiate the components, the real bone is brown, and reconstructed elements are lighter in color).
Not surprisingly, Kurt closed the museum down then we quickly checked into our hotel for the night, Sapphire Motel. I enjoyed the funky retro vibe of the remodeled hotel. We dropped off our bags then walked over to Bozeman Running Company on Main Street before they closed at 7pm then we had dinner at Whistle Pig Korean (GF options available & marked on menu). It was delicious (I had the Dak Bulgogi)! After dinner, I walked over to Bozeman Community Food Co-op on West Main to pick up some items for our outing tomorrow. To our surprise, there weren’t many people walking around downtown on Friday evening for a holiday weekend. It’s likely that the locals were out camping and tourists were at Yellowstone.
Kurt woke up early on Saturday morning to run 8 miles around downtown (incorporating some of the popular Gallagator Trail in his route), while I ended up opting for more sleep, despite the favorable temps. I had difficulty booking three consecutive nights (at an affordable rate) at the same hotel, so we had to check out of the Sapphire and drop off our bags at our next hotel for the night, the Kimpton, before picking up Cyanne at her hotel down the street. Then, we were off for our day’s adventure, a “Meet at the River tube trip” on the Lower Madison River with Madison River Tubing. One of the unique requirements of this outing was that we each had to purchase a Montana Conservation License in order to use Fish, Wildlife, and Parks boat launches, per Montana law as of July 2023.
We drove about 40 minutes from downtown Bozeman to the put-in location at California Corner. While it seemed pretty remote, the river ran next to the two-lane highway for much of trip. We checked in around 11:15am for our 11:30am trip, picked up our pre-paid rented cooler and stocked it for our floating picnic, listened to a brief safety talk, then walked down to pick up our tubes. I don’t particularly enjoy tubing because I find it difficult to reach over the tube with my short arms in order to paddle, so the only way that I wanted to do this was if all of our tubes were strapped together (we even rented a spare tube for the cooler). The tubes also had a mesh bottom, which made the experience more comfortable. Our float time to the take-out location at Black’s Ford was about 2 hours, 15 minutes in the end-of-summer low flow conditions. From there, we were shuttled back to our cars at California Corner, and we got back to Bozeman around 3:15pm.
We quickly checked into our hotel, so that Kurt could settle in to watch the remainder of The Ohio State football game season opener. After the game, we met Cyanne at her hotel for dinner at the rooftop restaurant and bar, Benchmark (GF pizza available).
One of Cyanne’s requests for the trip was that she wanted to hike to a waterfall. Thanks to local friends who planned and joined us for the outing, we hiked to not one, but three waterfalls on Sunday morning. We all carpooled to Hyalite Canyon and hiked to Grotto Falls and Arch Falls (about 4 miles round-trip from the Grotto trailhead).
Then, we made a short drive to Palisade Falls, which was accessible from the parking lot by a short, paved trail. It was definitely the grandest of the three falls!
After we returned to town, we had lunch at Revelry (GF bun available). Since our room at our hotel for the night wasn’t ready yet, Kurt and I decided to head to Big Sky to continue the waterfall theme for the day with a hike to Ousel Falls. Part of the drive from Bozeman to Big Sky is next to the Gallatin River, where we rafted on a previous trip to Big Sky for July 4th. The water level was very low with lots of exposed rocks this time of year, so we were surprised to see a few rafts making their way down the river (note to self, this is not the season for whitewater rafting here).
Eventually, we passed through the Big Sky Town Center to Ousel Falls Park. At the entrance of Ousel Falls Park, the trail descends into the South Fork ravine to the 100-foot Ousel Falls (about 1.6 miles round-trip). Was the short hike worth the drive from Bozeman? Probably not when there are so many other hikes available in the local area. But, I enjoyed the drive by the river again.
Once back in Bozeman, Kurt and I went in search of dinner, and we ended up eating at Copper (all day happy hour on Sunday, $5 drinks – we had the Coal Miner’s Daughter and Huckleberry Martini, $2 off apps – pork tacos were so good, even if they were on flour tortillas).
We had one last mini-adventure up our sleeve for Monday morning. Standing 250 feet tall at about 7000 feet, on the southwest end of the Bridger Range, you can’t miss the “M” as you enter the Gallatin Valley. The M was built by hand from rocks in the early 1900s by Montana State University students.
Take Bridger Canyon Road to the trailhead; a parking lot is located on the left side of the road (overflow parking is on the right side of the road). Once you reach the trailhead, you can choose your own adventure – a moderate trail meanders its way right up to the collegiate symbol or you can choose the more direct route via a shorter, steeper climb. We took the “easier” trail to the left, which proved to be a nice path popular with hikers, runners, and dogs. But, much to Kurt’s surprise and chagrin, I decided to descend down the steeper route. Hey, I wanted us to have the full “M” experience! But, honestly, I wouldn’t do it that way again.
We rewarded our efforts with lunch at Stuffed Crepes & Waffles located on Main Street (GF available; not open for dinner). They had both sweet and savory options (it was a mistake to only order one sweet to share though – the Venice & Brittany Cream was delicious).
We did some last-minute shopping on Main Street before heading to the airport for our afternoon flight. Our final stop of the trip was a visit to the newly opened LeeAnn Ramey art studio, where her husband helped us as I browsed her work. I particularly liked her colorful wildlife prints. As we were leaving, I spotted a canvas print of two bison facing off (“Stand Your Ground”) that I purchased to commemorate our upcoming 16th wedding anniversary later this week. It seemed fitting.
