Montana and Wyoming

Montana

The state of Grizzlies - here, there, and everywhere. Well, that is at least what my mom’s facebook page says but we ended up only seeing two of them. We went to Montana in 2020 (eek covid) and we needed to drive all the way there from Texas - I do not recommend this but we were crazy after being trapped up in our house for four months. To get here, we drove from Fort Worth, Texas to our aunt’s cabin in the middle of nowhere Colorado (actually about an hour west of Pike's Peak). We spent two days there and then drove to Big Sky, Montana which we used as our base for also doing things in Yellowstone (which you can read more about below). One of my favorite things that we did in Montana was horse backriding through the mountains. We used a company called Jake’s Horses, which I highly recommend because not only do they have great service, but they are also really kind and take great care of the horses. Another activity that we did was white water rafting. It was a little cold but was really fun. Tip is to remember that the earlier in the season you go, the crazier the rapids are. We also went mountain biking and we did this by renting bikes in the city and then taking the Gondola or bus (I can’t remember which) to the ski resort and doing trails around there. I will say that the trails there were very hard so I would definitely stick to the easiest ones if you are a beginner. The last activity that we did in Montana was a short hike called Ousel Falls, which has a giant waterfall at the end you can polar plunge or stick your feet into. Some of the best eats that we had while there were Bucks Road House and The Riverhouse BBQ and Events. To save money on this trip, we made a lot of our own meals. Montana is a stunning state with mountains larger than you can imagine and I recommend that everyone go visit! We are also going back to Montana summer of 2027 to visit Glacier National Park so stay tuned for that.

Wyoming

A land of vast and gorgeous mountains on the West side of the state, and the entire rest of the state has absolutely nothing. We never actually stayed the night in Wyoming as we stayed in Big Sky as the home base and would drive into Yellowstone National Park from there. The drive ranged from forty-five minutes to two and half hours depending on construction traffic and how far we were going in the park. On our way up from Colorado we drove by Grand Teton National Park and made a quick stop at Jenny Lake. The Tetons were gorgeous and all of us want to go back and spend more time there. In Yellowstone, we did all the highlight tourist attractions like Old Faithful, Mammoth Hot Springs, and Lower Falls. All of these were great and worth driving all over the park for. I recommend sectioning off the park and finding everything that you want to on a side of the park every day. I did really like the town of Big Sky and enjoyed everything that we did there, but it did become a lot of driving to stay there plus drive through Yellowstone. I would recommend staying in a VRBO close to the park. Another thing that we did at Yellowstone was hike up to a viewing point that overlooked Grand Prismatic Springs. From the overlook we continued on a hike to Fairy Falls, which was about 3.5 miles round trip. Another thing that we enjoyed about this area was huckleberry used in many different foods. My mom loved the huckleberry ice cream and I really enjoyed the moose tracks flavor. For eating we would spontaneously find places to eat after leaving the park. There are multiple towns on the outskirts of the park with numerous different restaurants and shops.