Wonders of the West

Montana Never Misses

Simply put, the state of Montana rarely misses when it comes to cities that blend good food, the outdoors, and unique culture.

Last week, I got to spend some time in Butte. Now, if you’re like me and have spent some time out west, Butte has always seemed like a drive through, or around, town that 90 travels right through. Regretfully, I always thought that Butte was just another blip on the map. I never managed to stop there until about a week, and wow, was I surprised. It certainly helped that the weather could not have been more perfect for June, but that wasn’t the only great part.

I was only in Butte for two days, which wasn’t nearly enough. I saw so much, yet there is so much more to see. One of my favorite parts of the town is all of the trails everywhere. Butte is a mining town, established in 1864 as a camp. Butte has paved trails that connect fourteen of the remaining mine-shaft headframes. The main trail is about 4.2 miles and was a fun walk with even better views. It took me a couple of hours to complete this hike because I love history and read every sign I came into contact with.

I also wanted to see the Granite Mountain Speculator Mine Disaster Memorial, which was along the trail. The Speculator Mine Disaster occurred when a fire broke out in the mine shaft, which eventually claimed the lives of 168 individuals. The memorial has dedications to those who lost their lives, stories from families of individuals who did and did not survive, and recordings made by miners who survived the ordeal. The Memorial is truly a must-see if one is visiting Butte.

Also of note is the Our Lady of the Rockies monument. While I did not actually go on a tour (although they are offered), I got to see the monument from afar. It was rather easy to see, considering it is a 90-foot statue of Mary that is set on top of the East Ridge overlooking Butte. As the story goes, Bob O’Bill thought up the idea in 1979 as a tribute to his wife, who was battling cancer. The statue was finally completed in December of 1985. During the summer months, you can go to the monument’s gift shop in Butte and go on a bus tour to see the site.

While I did stick to the well-known and loved MacKenzie River Pizza Company, Bar, and Grill for dinner on night one, I branched out and tried Shawn O’Donnell’s American Grill & Irish Grill for lunch, and it was mind-blowing. One of the best restaurants I have been to overall, especially for an Irish restaurant. It’s hard to find authentic Irish food, and they nailed it. I also tried coffee from Florence Coffee Co., and I was NOT disappointed. There were so many flavor options (even a secret menu), and the service was fast and delicious.

There is truly so much to do in Butte, especially things I didn’t get to do. Butte is also home to the Montana Folk Festival, which occurs every July. The stage was crafted by re-imagining the headframe of “The Original” mine yard and adding a stage. Thousands of people flock to Butte each year for this festival.

While there is so much more to see, I must add in honorable mentions for various architectural wonders. The buildings downtown are a shining example of the architecture and dedication to the beauty of Butte.

Perhaps the shining example of to die for architecture in Butte is the Copper King Mansion. Built in 1888 by Copper King William A. Clark, the 34-room home contains beautiful stained-glass windows, and the outside is absolutely stunning. The mansion gives tours daily, May-October, and also operates as a bed and breakfast. The mansion is a unique stay, sure to satisfy any history buff.

The Clark Chateau, built in 1898, was also built by William A. Clark. This 26-room home was meant to be his son’s home, but it only lasted that way for a short time. While it was only in the Clark family until 1906, it is a beautiful rendition of a French chateau and is worth stopping by to see. Today, it houses the Butte-Silver Bow Arts Foundation and is said to be haunted.

Butte has so many other wonderful things to do and see, and I have only named a few. There are sports teams, hiking trails, multiple museums, skating centers, annual celebrations (read Evel Knievel Days), and numerous different eateries spanning from Irish fare to Chinese restaurants, and everything in between.

While I once thought that Butte was a drive-through town, on the way to my destination, I can confidently say that it is a destination town all of its own. Butte is definitely worth a visit!

Another Year, More Adventures

Well, it would appear that it has been about a year since I wrote in here last. I never intended to wait this long in between posts, but here we are. Between getting a new laptop, Covid occurring, and starting nursing school, 2020 was a total whirlwind! In April of 2020, I moved back to Iowa for a “long summer”. My brother got married in August in Idaho (pics to come). In October I moved back to Wyoming to start school. Lastly, in January of 2021 I started nursing school.

I suppose the start will be to post a little bit about my time in Iowa! As soon as I arrived in Iowa, my sweet little Vizsla puppy, Cree, made his appearance. My parents had gone to another town in Iowa to pick him up. He is the most perfect pup!!

Cree is now 1.5 and is a total ball of energy! We run together regularly to keep him worn out and happy. The dogs and I spent most of our summer 2020 at Clear Lake, IA in my grandma’s cabin (when I wasn’t working). The boys learned that they enjoyed swimming, but Cash decided that he preferred life on land!

Clear Lake is this awesome town that is set right on a big lake in Northern Iowa. Obviously the big season is from May-September (Memorial Day to Labor Day, typically). September is probably my favorite month to be there, as you can still swim, but there aren’t as many people flocking into town.

My favorite places to go in Clear Lake are GeJo’s by the Lake (the best Italian restaurant), Cookies etc. (pretty self explanatory), and Cabin Coffee. All of these places are right on main street with fantastic views. A hidden gem of Clear Lake/Ventura is Rick’s Muskie Lounge right on the North Shore of Clear Lake. The Muskie has the best fried fish special around, and it has outdoor docks that boats can dock on directly off of the lake to come in and eat or get drinks.

Another must do in Clear Lake is ride the Lady of the Lake. The Lady takes you on an hour and a half long ride on the lake (multiple times a day). There is a full bar on board, so you can also have a drink and relax.

Overall, Clear Lake is a major must see attraction, any time of the year, if you find yourself in northern Iowa! One of my favorite things about the summer of 2020 was all of the time I got to spend with my family! My next post will probably be about the Yellow River Forest and Decorah, Iowa. My dad and I went hiking in the Yellow River Forest about once a week during the summer, and it was always breathtakingly beautiful!

As always, happy hiking my friends!!

Another Hiatus

Hello, everyone! Boy, has it been a long time since I’ve written to you all! I have been insanely busy since my last post in November. There wasn’t a lot to write about, so I kind of quit writing. However, I’m back with more content!

My big highlights for November and December were a couple of trips to Bozeman, MT and the big trip back to Iowa for Christmas.

Bozeman was a great time! I went to a restaurant called Naked Noodle, which was phenomenal. My friend, Katie, and I went shopping, spent way too much money at lululemon and closed our day out getting cookie dough from a truck called Brookie’s Cookies. Brookie’s Cookies is a new favorite of mine, to say the least.

Now, onto the trip to Iowa. Christmas is always a great time to go home, as long as you can avoid any bad weather. I had a super easy drive, with a ton of awesome views on my way to Iowa.

I always drive the 14 hours straight through, which leads to a long drive alone, but it’s a lot better than making it a two day trip. I got a lot of neat pics throughout Montana to share with you!

I had a lot of fun being home! We did a lot of fun things as a family, but one of my highlights was when my mom and I went to Mankato, MN to look at Christmas lights. The lights were so pretty, and we had a lot of fun together!

If you’re ever in the area, I highly recommend going to Mankato to check out their lights.

Christmas break ended up being really great. Sadly, the trip back wasn’t exactly smooth sailing. I got delayed by 3 days, because there had been a major storm and the interstate back out west was closed. I made it back to Montana a few days late. I wouldn’t trade being hoe for anything!

I hope to keep up with the blog this time! I have a lot of new places to tell you all about!

Happy Hiking!

I’m back!

Hey all! I’ve been so busy since starting my new job, so I have been MIA ever since! In the last few months, so much has happened! I got a new job, got promoted, went hunting with my dad and brother, had my mom, grandma, and little brother visit, and SO much more!

This post will mostly continue where we left off in September. That being said, let’s talk about the Beartooth Pass in Montana. My dad came out to hunt with my brother this past September, and they invited me to go with them. While the hiking was super hard, the experience was phenomenal.

The amazing views at the end of the hikes made the difficulty and sweat totally worth it. I’ll include a couple of the awesome pics I got on to of the mountains below. Hopefully the picture quality does it justice!!

In the last photo, you can see the road below us, which looks minuscule from our level. Our elevation was between 8,000 and 9,000 feet. This was our first hike of the day. We scouted from this location for a little while. After we scouted, we hiked down and went to another location.

Shockingly, I was able to get phone service from the top of the next mountain we hiked. I took the time to take a lot of pictures. Again, this mountaintop was beautiful. However, the wind on top of these hills was brutal. My dad and I found a side of the hill without wind to hunker down while my brother scouted.

By the time we hiked down the second mountain, the sun was setting. We saw a huge moose on the way out, but didn’t get close enough to get a good picture. I was able to snap some awesome sunset pictures, though! I will upload my favorite one below.

The next day was an awful rainy one. We decided to drive up to the East Entrance of Yellowstone to scout a little bit. There had been a bit of a cold snap, so there was snow everywhere. We could tell that it was snowing in the high elevations of Yellowstone. I got some pretty cool pictures from the side of the road too.

For those wondering- yes, I always look like a tourist wherever I go! I’ll be hanging out a my car window or standing on the side of the road taking pictures that inspire me!

I have a lot of new pictures and adventures to update you all on, so I hope to be able to post much more regularly again! I apologize profusely for completely falling off of the face of the earth.

I have some neat pictures from when my mom and grandma come out, so that will take about two whole blog posts right there!

As per usual, I’m writing this blog from my favorite coffee shop in Billings, Mazevo. If you’re ever in the area, you should most definitely check it out!! It’s totally worth it.

In other news, it finally, kind of, holiday season! You better believe that I’m drinking my favorite holiday latte every day 🙂 (ps it’s a caramel brûlée latte from Starbucks, send Starbucks gift cards 😂)

Until next week, Happy Hiking! I’ll probably be setting up Christmas decorations! Let me know in the comments if you have anything fun planned for the next few weeks or for the holidays!

The Rimrocks of Billings.. and Two Moon Park, too

Finally, back into the adventure! While Iowa holds a special place in my heart, writing about it every day feels like I’m repeating myself the whole time! 🙂

This next blog is going to focus on the Rimrocks and Two Moon Park, both of which are located right in Billings, MT. I had never even heard of either of these before I googled running trails in Billings. When both of these came up, I knew I had to check them out.

The Rimrocks are so cool, because they are basically a giant shelf of rocks that sit right above Billings. Even though I will talk about them in depth and post pictures, (many of which were taken by my friend Tavia) I recommend that you google them. The Rimrocks are truly something else.

Above is a panoramic view we took from the edge of the Rimrocks. You can literally see for miles. I haven’t ever seen anything quite as unique as this rock formation. Really, the only knocks I have on the Rimrocks is that there are a lot of Rattlesnakes, (where isn’t there?) and there are broken glass bottles everywhere.

I brought Cash with me to hike the rocks, and I was honestly super concerned that he was going to cut his paws open on all of the glass. There was so much of it, that it was almost impossible to avoid having him walk on some of it. Due to the sheer amount of people that bring their dogs up there, I was incredibly surprised that there was so much glass.

Speaking of Cash, here’s a pic (below) of him standing all cute on the Rimrocks. Yes, he had to carry his own poop bag 🙂

The next photo is of a rock that served as one of the trailheads.

I am going to add one more photo below that is the best picture of the Rimrocks that we took. It is hard to just imagine how large these rocks are without a proper photo. Even from below, the rocks don’t look as big as they truly are. It’s amazing how different sizes and disances look out here compared to in Iowa.

One thing that we really wanted to do was watch the sunset from the Rimrocks. So, we did exactly that. Tavia and I got some pretty cool photos that I’ll include below. Of course, my picture was with my litle dude, Cash. He really liked the Rimrocks, so once it gets colder and the rattlers die down, we will definitely be hiking it again.

I would love to take him now, but I don’t want to put him at any risk of being bitten by one of the snakes.

Now, we will move on to Two Moon Park. This park has it all. Places to swim, hills to run on, trails to walk, run, or hike on, and a beautiful view of the river. Cash, Emma, and I go running there every morning that we can, at about 6:45-7:00. We would go earlier, but it doesn’t even get light out until 6:30 here this time of year.

I originally went a few times by myself with Cash before Emma moved here, but now we usually go together. At 7:00 when it’s cool and the sun has just started really coming up, Two Moon is one of the most peaceful places on the planet.

We usually wrap up our run between 7:45 and 8:30, which is when a lot of people come in. The mornings are a really great time to go there. The trail I run on is a one mile, in and out trail. At the end it opens up to the river, pictured below.

Cash isn’t a water fan, but loves to run, so he loves this trail a lot. There are so many neat spots like this in Billings, which makes life a whole lot better. I am quickly settling in here, so I think that helps too.

This will conclude the Rimrocks and Two Moon topics for now. I recently went Black Bear hunting with Dalton (older brother) and my dad, so I will have one or two posts from that coming up, along with lots of photos.

Thank you for reading!

As always, Happy Hiking!!

The Closing of the Iowa Trilogy

We have finally reached the end of the exciting journey back to Iowa. Hopefully everyone is still with me! While I have really enjoyed writing about the trip back to Iowa, I am ready to get back to my mountain living and current world.

To continue where we left off, I’m going to dive right in to talk about one of my favorite places in Iowa: Clear Lake. My grandma, Ann, has had a cabin on Clear Lake as long as I have been alive. Clear Lake has kind of become our place. Some of my fondest childhood memories involve going with Grandma to open and close the cabin every fall and spring.

Yes, you read that right- we have to open and close the cabin. Her cabin is not winterized, so it is only able to be enjoyed during the more temperate times of the year. Personally, I think that only adds to the charm. I will include a photo of the cabin below.

While the cabin may not look like much from outside, the view of the lake is what is important. Believe me, the view is definitely worth not having heat, a/c, or wifi for the duration of your visit. 🙂 The photos below are taken from the dock and yard.

Even though it was raining for most of the day, Grandma and I made the most of our time. We went to dinner, played Yahtzee (she won), and played Scrabble. It was a pretty great time and an important part of my trip.

The next day (the day before I was supposed to fly home) I got some ice cream with my little brother and got to see some friends. If you’re ever near Cedar Falls or Waverly, check out Four Queens Dairy Cream- you won’t be disappointed! Check out the picture below of the sizes of our medium and large malts for reference of non-disappointment.

Another thing I used to love about going back to Iowa was seeing my old dog, Truman. I got to see him while I was there, before he passed away. If that doesn’t make my trip even more worth it, I don’t know what does. He had basically been my dog since we got him when I was in middle school. Truman and I were inseperable.

The last major thing that happened was, once again, my flight had issues. I had to work the next day, so I picked the most optimal flight to get me back to Denver, then Cody after that. Not surprisingly, the airplane had other ideas.

My dad, grandma, and I set off super early for my flight so that we could meet my mom for lunch before getting to the airport. While we were eating, I got the first delay text. It was only a half an hour, so no big deal. Fast forward a couple of hours, and my flight is delayed over three and a half hours, due to brake issues in our original plane that was coming to Cedar Rapids.

I missed my original connecting flight from Denver to Cody, but it was no biggie, as there was another connecting flight later in the evening. Finally, we are all sitting waiting to board, only to find out that there is an engine issue with this new plane that is supposed to take us from Cedar Rapids to Denver. It takes about two hours for them to look this issue. However, once they were done, I could’ve still made that last connecting flight.

Then, we received news that our original flight crew left, because their hours for the day were up. We would have to find an overnight crew to fly us to Denver. Best case-scenario, we would’ve left Cedar Rapids at midnight, meaning that I would miss the connecting flight, and wouldn’t get to Cody until after 3:30 the next afternoon anyways. So, I missed work the next day already.

Long story short, my awesome parents drove two hours back to Cedar Rapids to pick me up. I wasn’t going to leave out of Cedar Rapids anymore. I was able to switch airports, and ended up leaving from Des Moines the next afternoon, and made it to Denver and then Cody, with only a 45 minute delay in my flight from Denver to Cody.

Just about the only good things that came out of these flight issues were: more time to spend with my family, Grandma got to drive me to the airport the next day, we got awesome pizza in Cedar Rapids that night, and lastly, this awesome sunset pic (below) from outside of the Cedar Rapids airport.

My parents and grandma are seriously troopers for putting up with so many flight delays and cancellations. I am seriously so thankful for them, I would not have made it to Iowa and back to WYO without them!!!

While this blog may have been short, I hope it was plenty interesting! If you are from Iowa originally, perhaps not 🙂 That being said, we have officially come to the end of our Iowa Trilogy!! I hope everyone is cheering right along with me!

Next week, I will post a shorter blog about the Billings Rimrocks and Two Moon Park. Both the Rimrocks and Two Moon Park are nice little breaks from the hustle and bustle of Billings, that aren’t a far drive.

Until next week, Happy Hiking!!

Also, in the meantime, enjoy another photo of Clear Lake below.

The Iowa Saga, Continued

I was definitely fooling myself when I thought that the Iowa post could be squished into one post. I don’t like to write that way, and I don’t want my readers to have to read that way. So, I am expanding on my trip and drawing the posts out.

Let me tell you about Des Moines, IA. It is the capital city of Iowa and about 198,000 people live there. I know, for the most populated city in Iowa, that’s not a lot. However, that’s part of what makes Iowa so awesome. Everywhere you go (yes, even Des Moines) will give you a small town feel.

Like I said, Des Moines can be pretty awesome. My cousin got married in a part of Des Moines that I have never gotten to see before, which was pretty awesome. She got married at the Rollins Mansion. This place was beautiful.

The ceremony was in the courtyard, and the reception was on the terrace. While it was a very different wedding from the one I attended in Cody earlier this summer, it was totally amazing and beautiful in its own way. My family and I took a few pics (below).

Sadly, and very obviously, my 15 year old little brother is taller than me. 🙂 It’s definitely a weird feeling when your little siblings grow up. I couldn’t even count how many people called Carson (the little brother) Dalton (the older brother). They don’t look that much alike, but Carson has grown so fast that a lot of people don’t recognize him.

Back to the wedding- it was a beautiful day out. While it was a little overcast, it was perfect weather. The sunset over the mansion was so neat. Sadly, I was enjoying my time with the family too much to snap a photo 😦 However, I think that it was probably more important to spend time with everyone than to run around with my camera.

My next favorite part of my trip was fishing the river with my dad and little brother. While both of them made me look like a chump and outfished me like 14 a piece to 2 fish, I still had the time of my life. We went out around 7:00 a.m. and finished up around 3:00 pm. Then, we went and got ice cream. Who could complain about a day like that? (Pics below)

Carson also caught the biggest fish of all, save the ugly Carp that my dad caught. Figures that Carson would beat us all. He’s always the tall tale telling, story changing, competitive, has to win one of us. Well, when it comes to fishing anyways.

This same night, Carson and I not only went and visited our Grandpa, but we also shot bows together. I learned a lot from my grandpa (what’s new) and also learned that my lil bro is wayyy stronger than me.

Like what?! When did this happen?!!! I couldn’t even draw his bow back, much to my dismay. That being said, below is a pic of us shooting our bows together. However, I am using a bow that I shot in 4th grade. How embarrassing!! 😂 The picture is super blurry (Thanks, Mom!) but it has become one of my favorites of us.

Just for fun, I’m also going to add a picture of Carson talking to my grandpa, because he’s the coolest old man ever. Moving away really shows you those that you took for granted and who’s important to you.

As you can see from the above pic, just about anywhere in the country in Iowa is quite beautiful.

Another favorite thing about Iowa for me has to do with food. Every time you go to a new place (or are returning to said place) you have a list of places you want to eat. The funny thing for me is that, when I go back to Iowa, the places I want to try are always hole in the wall bar and grills or somewhere that outsiders would never even know about.

Yes, I had a list of food place when I went to Iowa. However, this is how the list went: Doc’s, a tiny little bar in Clarksville, IA (best cheeseballs and double cheeseburgers ever), Cedar River Pizza Co. (Best pizza ever, in a tiny carry out only place in Charles City, IA), Casey’s BBQ Beef or Breakfast pizza (yes, Casey’s is a gas station), The Musky Lounge (bar that serves mainly fish in Clear Lake, IA), and Hickory Park (massive restaurant in Ames, IA, cheapest home cooked meal AND best Blue Bunny Ice Cream ever).

If you aren’t an Iowan, you have probably never heard of any of these places! Honestly, that’s partially what I love about each and every one of these places. Iowa has some of the most unique restaurants, people, and lifestyles.

While I am happy that I moved away and am doing something on my own, I’m glad I have a place like Iowa to go back and visit from time to time. Iowa people are a different breed. If you watch the Iowa vs. Iowa State football game on the 14th, I have a feeling you will figure that out for yourself.

As I have reached the end of this post, I am happy to say that the Iowa Trilogy will continue and end with a third and final post next week. After that, I will probably stick to my local wonders for a little while. I’m hoping to camp Yellowstone again this fall, and maybe a couple other places. We will have to wait and see.

After the final installment of the Iowa Trilogy, I will have a post about the Billings Rimrocks, so keep your eye out for that! You may be more inclined to wait two weeks for that post if you’re tired of the Iowa subject matter.

As always, Happy Hiking. I hope everyone had an awesome first week of September, and, if you’re anything like me, you’re ready for fall! 🙂

Iowa Bound

I have quickly realized that I am going to have to do a couple or few posts that are Iowa based, so bear with me. It was an awesome, crazy, and eventful week and a half in Iowa.

The crazy part of the trip all started with my flight out of Cody. While I love the convenience of flying out of Cody, I am definitely not a fan of United Airlines (sorry !!). Out of all 6 flights I’ve had from Cody in United, 4 have been missed or delayed.

Anyway, my flight from Cody to Denver was delayed by over an hour and a half. There went my layover 🙂 So, I missed my connecting flight from Denver to Cedar Rapids.

The next flight to Cedar Rapids wasn’t for hours, so I flew to Des Moines instead. A lot of delays and mishaps later, and I finally got to see my family. Check out the in flight pic I snapped below on our way out of Cody!

We had some pretty crazy turbulence on our way to Denver this trip. We drove through some pretty sweet clouds that I also snapped a picture of. I love taking photos when I’m flying, because it never ceases to amaze me how different everything looks from above.

I also think that flying through the clouds is such a surreal experience, so I always take a picture or two. On that note, enjoy the cloud shot below 🙂

My grandma and parents picked me up from the airport, so that was pretty awesome. Then, we went home. I mostly just hung out the rest of the night with my parents and childhood dog, Truman. I will definitely post a pic of Truman later.

On Day 2 in Iowa, my little brother and I went exploring around our house. Our farmland was all put into a federal CRP program to help the wildlife and butterfly population grow. There were fields of Black-Eyed Susans and Sunflowers (pictured below). The first photo is the field of Black-Eyed Susans, and the second photo is one of the Sunflowers doing its job 🙂

I have always loved Sunflowers, so when my dad told me that they were planting some this summer, I was ecstatic. Luckily I got to go back to Iowa when I did, because they were on their way out for the season. Even as they were starting to wilt, the sunflowers were beautiful.

My parents live right on the Shell Rock River (not that I expect any of you to know what that is). It is so peaceful out on our land. Once you leave, you truly realize how beautiful it can be where you are from. However, I do NOT miss the humidity. Yes, the humidity helps grow awesome stuff like sunflowers and corn, but yuck is all I can say on that front.

Also, the sunsets are so much better in the country. As much as I love Billings, you don’t quite always get to enjoy the sunset here. Carson and I stayed out until sunset just about every night, which was pretty awesome. While I never want to move back to Iowa, I did enjoy and love my time there.

Due to the fact that my trip to Iowa was a fairly long one, I don’t want to cram all of it into one single post. In the next one (or two) posts, I will cover the wedding, bow shooting, river fishing, and much more!

I hope this post about going to Iowa again didn’t bore anybody out of their minds! If it did, you may just want to skip the next one or two posts from me 🙂

The next Iowa post should be up within the next 5-7 days. Cash (my little dog) and I are going to be out doing some hiking, so I should have another fun post soon!

As always, Happy Hiking!

Yellowstone Magic

Sorry for the literally ginormous pic, but this picture, quite literally, embodies Yellowstone National Park. I wouldn’t even want to guess how many pictures are taken with these park signs every single day. My best guess would probably still be too low.

If you ever go out west, Yellowstone is a must! Its beauty is incomparable, and I am a firm believer that everyone must see Old Faithful at least once in their lives. Yellowstone is full of magic that, I’m convinced, is next to impossible to find anywhere else.

I got to camp in Yellowstone this past week when Tavia and I went to visit. Let me tell you, camping Yellowstone was hands down one of the coolest experiences of my life. The weather was perfect, our campsite was right on Lewis Lake, and there were a lot of great people at our campground.

Another awesome part about camping in Yellowstone is the ease of getting around the park. Camping on-site eliminates the problem of having to make additional plans and waking up crazy early to make it to the park at a decent time. One major positive of this particular campground was that it was only 11 miles from the South Entrance, which basically means Grand Teton National Park.

If you have the time, you cannot miss out on the opportunity to go to the Tetons and Jackson, WY. Both places are so unique and beautiful, making it totally worth the extra few miles and hours. Tavia and I spent a couple of hours in Jackson and it still wasn’t enough! I could really spend a couple of days there.

However, it seems that everyone and their dog had the same idea as we did! There were so many people in Jackson when we went there. You do have to take into consideration that it was the middle of the day, in the middle of the summer, on a Friday no less! Even with the large amount of people, Jackson is still way awesome! (Photo of the Tetons below)

We also went to Firehole Canyon, which is a major must-do in Yellowstone! There is a little road that goes off of the main road to Madison Village, called Firehole Lake Drive. If you haven’t followed that road all the way around, you are missing out!! The drive through was so peaceful and beautiful!!

Firehole Lake Drive has geysers, hot springs, a steamy lake, and many other super sights. The drive was a super relaxed way to take in a lesser explored/populated area of Yellowstone. The photo below is of one of the pools, taken by my friend Tavia.

That night, we decided to check out our campsite a little more. We took Cash (my dog) and walked down by Lewis Lake. We were able to catch one of the coolest sunsets that I have ever seen. Being in Yellowstone in the mountains probably makes it look even prettier than it may have actually been! 🙂

Of course, Cash couldn’t be bothered to look at the camera in the pic below, but it was a super cool moment nonetheless. Cash was not very happy about being on a floating dock- he hates water 😉 The sunset was a great ending to the night.

Our final day in Yellowstone consisted of Canyon Falls, Mammoth Hot Springs, and Tower Falls, all of which are tried and true Yellowstone favorites! We also snapped a photo with the Continental Divide sign, another Yellowstone favorite!

Luckily, I am not going to spoil ALL of Yellowstone for you! If you want more, you will just have to go there! If you make that decision, I promise, it will be one of the best you have ever made. The sights and sounds of Yellowstone are 100% worth the time and money spent to make it happen!

If you can’t make it in the summer, or don’t want to deal with the crazy amount of other people, the fall is also a super awesome time to check out the park. If you are into snowmobiling, parts of Yellowstone are even open in the winter too. You can truly find a way to make it happen if it’s on your bucket list!

Believe me, before last summer, I had never been to Yellowstone in my whole life. I had wanted to go so badly, but my family couldn’t really do the family vacation thing, as my siblings and I were all summer athletes. We also had a few dogs at home that made it difficult to leave. Now, one year and change later, I have been to the park six times. Yep, I said six. I have found a new place or seen something new each time I have gone to the park.

There is never a dull moment or dull season in Yellowstone National Park!

I will be traveling back to Iowa again for a wedding this week and will have another (Midwest based) post after the week is up. In the meantime, enjoy this pic of Tavia and Cash.

Happy Hiking, Taylor.

Boze… Vegas?

This past week has been one for the books. It all started with the fly fishing day trip. That night I headed to the Billings-Logan international Airport to pick up my best friend, Tavia.

Her flight got in around 11:45 pm, so we went back to my place. The next morning we decided to get up and do something. We set our sights on the illusive ski resort town of Bozeman, MT.

When we rolled into Bozeman we couldn’t help but to notice how beautiful the town was. The downtown area was beautiful.

Downtown Bozeman had quite a few higher end boutiques and shops, while also maintaining the small town feel and ideals.

Another awesome part about Bozeman are all of the coffee shops, cafes, and markets. Bozeman is the type of town you can just picture yourself in.

One particular thing that caught my eye was a sign that said Bozevegas on it. While I have never heard of Bozeman referred to as that before, it made sense. Bozeman is growing quickly, predominantly due to the technology industry. Those from the California area seem to be flocking to the town, leading to exponential growth.

We stopped for lunch at Burger Bob’s, which may be one of the coolest little places to get food in Bozeman. It has an old school feel, is affordable, and has the best waffle fries in town.

Perhaps my favorite part of the trip (other than the REI Store) was hiking the M Trail. There is an M Trail in multiple Montana towns. All of the M Trails I have hiked have had beautiful views, however the Bozeman M Trail is gorgeous. Tavia and I chose to hike the difficult side of the trail and it was awesome.

Bozeman is really, truly a pretty cool college town. It definitely helps that the college itself is gorgeous. If you are studying the sciences, Bozeman is the place to go. The University is also updating much of the school as well right now.

These updates include the rec center, new buildings, and the football stadium. It is very obvious that Montana State cares about their students.

I wish that I had taken more photos of Bozeman and its downtown, however I was just trying to enjoy my day. If you go to Bozeman you have to check out La Châtelaine Chocolat Co. Their unique types of chocolate were amazing. Other awesome places include Nova Cafe, Co-Op, and the Montana Scene. Bozeman also has a Lululemon, if you’re into that.

Since I only have one other photo of Bozeman, enjoy this last aerial I took from the top of the M Trail.

As always, Happy Hiking!