MONTANA.Holy crap. Guys. Montana.
Montana.
Definitely my favorite state that I visited, which is tough because each one was incredibly elite. But Montana is easily a top 4 state in the country behind Kansas and then some order of Alaska/Hawaii. I left Wyoming to camp in West Yellowstone, MT. and ended up spending, I think, four days in Montana? Maybe 5? It was so fantastic.
I started by driving in the very SW part of Montana through Gallatin National Forest. Gallatin is just incredibly underrated and is definitely one of the coolest drives you can make in the lower 48. Blared "Sprawl II" and looked at the mountains beyond mountains and I think I creamed my jeans. Canadian friend I know put up this video. Doesn't really do it justice but whatever.
LOOK AT THIS FARM. LOOK AT IT. LOOK HOW GREEN.
Stopped in Bozeman to explore for a few hours. Seems like a pretty cool town. Home of Montana State and former home of The Jonathan Beasley. The town is probably about as big as Laramie, maybe a little bigger. 30,000 or so, I'd guess, plus students. I mainly checked out the university and will post stadium photos in the stadium thread, but I wanted to post this picture of Fat Tim Riggins in here. And some other Bozeman pics.
Left Bozeman and headed toward Butte, which is on the way up to Polson (Flathead Lake) where I was eventually to stay the night. The scenery near Butte is different from Bozeman but super increds elite, also. I want this farm too.
Big old thanks to whichever gE'r told me to go to Flathead Lake near Polson, MT., by the way. It was so absolutely elite. I stayed in Big Arm State Park about 16 miles away from Polson. Place was deserted and I got to set up camp 5 feet from the lake. Fell asleep to lapping waves. Was
.
Next morning at Flathead:
I considered staying a second day at Flathead because it was so peaceful and elite. Decided instead to stick to the plan and go on up to Glacier National Park to maximize my time there. Drove along the entire east shore (?) of Flathead Lake and it was gorge the whole way. Then from that point to the SW entrance of GNP it was nothing but mountains and advertisements for huckleberries. Huckleberry stuff was srsly everywhere. Huck yeah.
Arrived at GNP late afternoon and spent a bunch of time 'splorin before setting up my camp at Big Arm Campground on Lake McDonald. Here are some pictures from the western portion of GNP.
Whoa. "That's way bigger than a normal-sized car." Now, for GNP prairie dogs.
Lake McDonald through the trees.
Guys. Look.
The western part of GNP was amazing. Going-To-The-Sun Road was closed for construction in, like, the middle five miles. I got to drive almost the length of it from each side except for the middle five miles or so. So, in order to get from the west side to the east side I had to go all the way around the bottom of the park and enter from the east side. Here are some pictures from that drive. There are MAAAAD rolling hills (again, v. beautiful Flint Hills'y, but this time with enormo mountains in the background). And I saw a herd of wild horses. I mean what in the world. Kay. Pictures.
Misty Mountain Hop.
That drive had a collection of mountains near Black Feet (Blackfoot? Blackfeet?) Reservation that were super cool. I called it the pincushion forest in my head.
Drove into Many Glacier on the east side of GNP. It was so good. The water was such a great color. Hiked about a mile up a mountain to Apikuni Falls and had an increds view of Many Glacier. Rainbows and stuff. Pictures from the hike:
oh eff help me i can't stop posting pictures.
Next day I went 8 miles south in GNP to St. Mary Lake. It was my last day in GNP.
Hey there little buddy!
I didn't even know scenery like this existed within the lower 48.
I was sad to leave.
The last night of my Montana trip was spent in Missoula at the Auntie Mae's Satellite Campus for Fattyfest NW. I detailed that in the goEMAW encounters thread so I won't be redundant here but let's just say it was life-changing and I am a better person for having pak'd with Porky Morgan. Missoula is super cool. Downtown is very very elite and there's a big ol' butte (or mountain?) overlooking their stadium. Again much of that will be in the other stadium threads but here are some pictures from atop said butte.
This is what Worden's Deli considers to be a "half" sandwich. Some other guy's glasses next to sandwich for scale.
Montana, man.