Western Montana

On lazy summer days, sometimes there’s nothing better than a walk around the neighborhood. Earlier today, I took a three mile walk around my own neighborhood, the southern side of Bozeman.

Starting out at my house, I headed north, took a left on Garfield, and took a right on Willson. On my street and Garfield, there’s not much to see other than the typical suburban sprawl, but Willson is a different story entirely. In many ways, Willson reminds me of the sort of old-money neighborhoods you see on the East Coast; the street is lined with large mansions that date back to the early 1900’s.

The largest and grandest of these mansions is the Story Mansion, at the corner of Willson and College St. The city bought the mansion recently, to preserve its status as a historic building, I believe. To my knowledge the city still doesn’t know exactly what to do with the mansion (our city government is hardly any less inept and bureaucratic than a major city government, hate to say…), but it sure does look impressive right in the heart of Bozeman!

From here I took a left on College and began walking toward Montana State University. On College, you’ll find all sorts of restaurants and shops - my favorite being Bozeman’s famous (well, locally famous) Pickle Barrel. I love the sandwiches served at the Pickle Barrel and the atmosphere of the local neighborhood never disappoints. Seating is available inside and outside, although can be limited at times.

College Street also happens to bound the northern edge of the MSU campus around this area. Cutting south across campus, you’re able to see the heart of campus and reach the southern end of it in just a few minutes (it’s a small-ish campus).

From here, you’re within walking distance of both the Museum of the Rockies - famous for its dinosaur bones - and my house. By this time I was rather tired, unfortunately, so I decided to head home. The walk from the University to home is interesting in and of itself, though, taking you through two of Bozeman’s smaller parks - Christie Fields and Langley Park.

There isn’t much to Christie Fields other than three baseball diamonds, but part of Bozeman’s “Main Street to the Mountains” trail system works its way through Langley Park, providing some nice views of the surrounding mountains (as depicted above). Just another reason why the best way to see Bozeman is on foot!