Western Montana

Many Montanans - myself included - don’t realize that Southwest Montana is home to its own botanical gardens. But it does! Located just a few minutes off Interstate 15 near Jefferson CIty lies the Tizer Gardens, home to a variety of plants, flowers, and short walking trails. My mother, being very much into gardening, heard about the place and decided to head down with me (that is, she insisted that I come with her, as I am not usually into these sorts of things!).

The first thing many notice as they drive into Bozeman is the Bridger Mountains, to the town’s north and east. At the far southern end of this chain of mountains is a 250 foot tall letter “M” made from painted-white rocks. The M stands at slightly under 7,000 feet in elevation and is [...]

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.

In my hometown of Bozeman, Montana, skiing is king. This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise; we have a world-class resort just 45 miles down the road at Big Sky, as well as the local favorite, yet still impressive Bridger Bowl ski area. But lost in all the downhill excitement is the soothing experience of cross-country skiing. I’ve found that many residents are surprised to find that the city of Bozeman operates several cross-country trails within the city limits.

Beavertail Hill State Park is a quick trip about 25 miles east of Missoula, right off Interstate 90, at Exit 130. The campground is just one-quarter mile south of the highway. You can see the Fishing Pond, which is immediately to the north of the highway. This is actually the Beavertail Hill Fishing Access Site, and not part of the State Park. This is a SUPER spot for youngsters to fish from shore. I’ll get back to the Fish Pond later on, but on to the Campground!

I was on the return leg of a short trip on Highway 200 and decided to take a side trip to Garnet, the well-preserved, goldminer-era Ghost town. There are some spectacular views along the drive which is all uphill, and I took advantage of a beautiful day to shoot some photos too.

We took a trip in late May to Glacier National Park. I was pretty excited to see the glaciers since they’re melting and are on track to be completely gone by 2030, so I wanted to see them before they melted away. It was still pretty early in the season so there was a lot of snow in the mountains and over the trails to the glaciers. I figured since my boyfriend and I were not going to make the trek in the snow that we had to do something in order for me to achieve my wish to see the glaciers. So I broke out of my normal vacation mold of planning and budgeting everything and spontaneously told my boyfriend to pull into the Glacier Heli Tours.

hould have been near where the falls where. There was no sign but the guardrail separated and a path headed down the hill where I could see rushing water. I climbed down the steep hill for a few feet and decided the path was a little more than I could handle and I headed back, so I still have not seen the falls. We got back on the highway and continued to head home. Although we had a few mishaps, like not being able to find the falls and that darn eagle flying away, it was an enjoyable drive with lots of beauty. If you are interested in driving the highway 56 you can connect from highway 2 east of Troy or highway 200 west of Noxon. The highway is about 35 miles in length.

I have always been fascinated by old cars, so on a vacation to Glacier National Park I decided that my boyfriend and I were going to take a tour on the Red Jammer, or the Red Bus as most people call them. The buses are called Red Jammers because they originally had manual transmissions and the drivers could be heard jamming the gears as they drove around the park.

To step on the DeSmet tour boat you might think you are going to see Gilligan, maybe even the Skipper, but don’t worry , there is no fearful three hour tour here. We arrived about 45 minutes before the boat tour started and enjoyed the Lake McDonald lodge as we waited. The lodge was a delight, filled with many animals mounted on the wall and Native Indian decor.