Traveling north from Wyoming to Montana was one of our checkpoints on this trip. This would be the last state that we would stop in before crossing the border into Canada, one step closer to getting to Alaska. This was also a new state for us in a way. In talking with a few people, everyone has a different method of “counting” a state to add to their list. For some it counts if you have just landed for a layover, for others it’s just driving into the state even if you just drive out the same day. For the real hardcore people it only counts if you have spent a night in the state. For the most part Julie and I are of the “just driving into it” counts. The last time we were in Montana however it was just for a part of a day and this time we would be in the state for almost one week. Montana, here we go!
KOA #1
Driving into Billings and pulling into the KOA campground we realized two things, 1. we knew nothing about Billings at all and 2. maybe more importantly (for us anyway) that we were staying in the first ever KOA! Over the past two years we had stayed at a lot of KOA’s (Billings was #59 for us) and it was pretty neat to find the godfather of them all. The campground itself was pretty nice. It was close to the city but in a secluded spot next to the Yellowstone River and a small fishing pond. After setting up and cooking dinner we listened as a fellow camper a few spots away picked up his guitar and sang songs to no one in particular as he looked over the lake. It was like it was a scene from a KOA or campground commercial. It was pretty awesome!
Billings, MT
The next day we woke up ready to explore. We knew Billings was Montana’s biggest city so we figured there had to be some cool things to see downtown. As the campground was only about a half hour walk we left Bubbles at the campground, grabbed a backpack and headed out for the day. As we had left the campground a bit late and were a bit hungry after the walk we stopped into a restaurant called McCormick Café. It was Sunday and it looked like they had a pretty great brunch. As our normal breakfast consists of fruit and dried Cheerios we took the opportunity to have an actual warm breakfast. We both had a big, hearty breakfast and it was great!
From the café we stumbled on a big store called Liberty & Vine Country Store. They sold everything from clothes, to food to home goods. They also had an entirely different part of the building that they rented out sections to other people as an upscale flea market kind of area. The people who own the products were not there but you could buy them at the register along with everything else in the store. It was a pretty neat idea. We picked up a few goodies and when checking out spoke to the owners Jason & Amy. We talked travel for a bit as well as what to do and where to go in Billings on a Sunday.
We learned from Jason & Amy that Billings has a lot of great hiking trails as well as a lot of great local spots for a drink. As Julie & I were walking anyway we decided a few drinks sounded good. Just a few blocks from their store was Last Chance Pub & Cider Mill. The pub was located in what seemed like an old mill or railroad storage house. We split a flight of their ciders, which were good. From the cider mill we headed over one block to Uberbrew. There we repeated this process of splitting a flight of their beer. Uberbrew was located in the same warehouse building (every business on Montana Street was in a converted warehouse) but they had changed it up a bit and put a very modern twist on it. Against the old wood was gleaming metal that they had incorporated with the structure. It was hip and pretty cool. Lastly we walked directly downtown and stopped at Hooligan’s Sports Bar for a Guinness. Most of our good travel ideas have come while drinking a pint of Guinness and as we are currently on a great trip, bottoms up!
We walked around downtown Billings for a bit more doing a little window-shopping. Since it was Sunday not too much was open but it was still fun to look. We then walked back to the campground, relaxing, eating and calling it a night on a fun day.
The next day we woke up and hit the road once again. Today we were headed a few hours west to the town of Bozeman. We haven’t repeated many towns in the last two years of traveling but Bozeman was going to be one of them. A few years prior we drove up to Bozeman from Yellowstone for lunch just to check the state of Montana off of our states visited list. Both Julie and I remembered really liking Bozeman. It was a western town but did not try to play up the old west. It was a college town, a ski town and one of the gateways to Yellowstone National Park. Its downtown was a lot of fun with shops and restaurants so Julie and I were excited about going again.
Bozeman, MT
As we drove from Billings to Bozeman I texted with a buddy of mine named John Milner who had grown up in Bozeman. John had moved away year’s prior but still had family in the area. I wanted to know if there was anything off the beaten path that we should check out. He told me that his brother was still in town and that his favorite place to go was a sushi restaurant named Dave’s Sushi. Sort of an odd name for a sushi restaurant we thought but here we go off to Dave’s Sushi. We found parking near downtown and walked over to the sushi restaurant. While Julie & I didn’t think the sushi was the best that we ever had the restaurant was bright and airy with a fun vibe. Overall we had a good time there and would recommend the restaurant.
From lunch at Dave’s, Julie and I wandered around the town of Bozeman. We stopped in and out of shops getting a coffee at Rockford Coffee Roasters. We then wandered into Bozeman Spirits Distilling and split a flight of their spirits. While there we got into talking with one of the locals Mike, his wife and their dog. We also had a great conversation with the bartender Boston McDonald (probably the most badass name that we have come across so far). Boston had a love for the spirits that they were distilling and was a musician at heart. We had a great time talking with both Mike & Boston and got a lot of good local music tips from Boston as well. The drinks at Bozeman Spirits were good too.
As the day was winding down we decided to head over to the campground for the night. After making dinner we attempted to watch the movie “Isn’t it Romantic” that we had borrowed from the campground office. Not every movie is a winner though and we had to turn it off after only 20 minutes or so. Oh well, it had been a long day and we had more adventures coming up tomorrow!
Next up….Montana’s Capitol City and Glacier National Park!
Glad you enjoyed Bozeman!
Yes, thanks so much for your recommendation! Hope you are doing well!