Category: Montana

7th Ranch RV Park

7th Ranch RV Park

Hey Y’all! I don’t normally post about the RV parks we stay at, but this one is my favorite so far! The owners were super nice and so helpful with things to see in the area and bonus…we got free ice cream when we arrived!!

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Besides being one of the cleanest, best organized parks I’ve seen, it’s also a working ranch which means…

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There are real horses! You could take a riding lesson or just hang out with the horses. The horse above was thoroughly convinced my camera was really an apple meant for him. He nosed me a couple of times and followed me until he realized I didn’t have anything for him.

There was a great little playground for the boys to spend their days in.

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And some hiking trails for the evenings.

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One hiking trail leads up to a hill behind the park where I snapped the picture above. If you look really closely, you can spot our home on wheels!

Some of the other details about this place that make it so great…

The tipi we got to watch them put up and then explore,

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the community fire pit (that for some reason reminded me of the Flintstones),

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and the wonderful landscaping! I’m a sucker for pretty flowers.

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The view wasn’t bad either.

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Combine all of that and the cleanest bathrooms I’ve seen so far and you’ve got yourself a fantastic little RV park!!

See y’all down the road!

Montana Flowers

Montana Flowers

Hey Y’all!!

I just wanted to do a quick post to share with you all of the beautiful flowers I’ve been enjoying while here in Montana. I don’t know their names…sorry. I’ve got quite a few pictures and in the interest of not bogging down everyone’s internet connection…I’ve put the pictures into two collages.

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If anyone knows the names of any of them I’d love to know!

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I’m aware that there are two weeds in the picture above, but I couldn’t resist them. One was so perfectly round and the other was so stinkin’ big! Some of the flowers are wild flowers and some are not.

Anyway, there are some of the many flowers I’ve been enjoying while we’ve been traipsing around Montana! Hope y’all enjoyed them and let me know if you know any of their names.

See y’all down the road!

Billings, MT

Billings, MT

We recently spent some time in Billings, MT. Billings isn’t a huge metropolis…it only has about 100k residents…but after the teeny tiny towns we’ve been staying in, Billings felt like it was huge! We found an excellent burger place to eat.

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Although the burgers looked amazing, I opted for one of their house salads.

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It was big enough for two people. I got mine with pepperjack cheese melted on a burger with spicy ranch dressing. I think I could eat there a couple of times a week and not get tired of it. For all of you who know what Five Guys is…Mooyah is a similar set up except they have more options and…they have shakes too.

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Even if the food wasn’t stellar, they would’ve had me with this sign.

After we filled our bellies with some top notch food, we went out on a hike above the city.

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Billings isn’t big, but boy does it have some nice views!

We walked along the bluffs appreciating the views,

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playing on the rock formations, and I took a ton of pictures of the prettiest flowers growing there! I won’t bore you with all of them…I’ll just post up a few of my favorites!

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These were the most abundant flowers on this hike. The purple flowers were everywhere! I think I spent more time looking at the flowers than looking at the view.

Another favorite place we found is Scheels. It’s like a combination of a Bass Pro Shop and an Academy Sports store. It’s probably one of the biggest I’ve seen. The prices weren’t bad and they had fun things to keep the boyos entertained while we shopped.

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Yup, they have a Ferris wheel in the store.

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Along with these fun photo ops set up! We got there an hour before they closed. We had a great time looking at everything and walked out with some great deals! I think we could have spent several hours walking around.

We enjoyed Billings. It was the first big-ish town we’ve come across for awhile with some of the stores we’ve come to miss.

See y’all down the road!

Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument

Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument

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The Little Bighorn Battlefield was a lesson in history for the boys. The Rangers do a great job retelling the story of what happened and the museum has some amazing artifacts. We spent close to five hours here walking the trails, listening to a Ranger Talk and learning about Lt Col. George Custer’s Last Stand.

IMGP1251The museum was our first stop. The Little Boys didn’t waste any time getting started on the Junior Ranger Field Guide.

We’ve all heard the story, but walking the paths while reading the descriptions at each tour stop really illustrates what happened here.IMGP1311The Picture above shows what was at each stop on the driving tour.

This National Monument memorializes not only Custer’s last battle and the loss of hundreds of soldiers, but it also memorializes the Northern Plains Indian’s fight to preserve their ancestral way of life.

IMGP1289The picture above is Last Stand Hill. It’s the final resting place of not only Custer, but nearly 40 other soldiers.

IMGP1292There’s a memorial at the top of the hill dedicated to the hundreds of soldiers who lost their life in the battle.

IMGP1283There’s a headstone like this for every soldier who lost their life. They’re placed where the soldier was found. They look like ghosts dotting the landscape.

IMGP1299All of the Indians who lost their lives have headstones that are like this one. They too dot the landscape, but there aren’t nearly as many…less than 100.

IMGP1294Several different signs reminded us that we’re in rattlesnake country. The boys kept asking if each sound they heard was a rattlesnake.

IMGP1301There is a wonderful Indian Memorial there as well.

IMGP1305You can see the Soldier Memorial through a slit in the wall.

IMGP1308This is a picture of nine remaining Warriors that gathered together back in 1948.

IMGP1280The battlefield looks so peaceful now. It’s a beautiful area.

IMGP1314The Little Boys finishing up their Junior Ranger Field Guides. They’re up to four badges now.

We all walked away with a better understanding of what really happened during the Battle of Little Bighorn.

See y’all down the road!

Historic Graffiti

Historic Graffiti

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What is Pompey’s Pillar National Monument? It is the only place you can be assured to stand in the footsteps of William Clark of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

IMGP1167Clark carved his name in the rock…I guess you could call it historical graffiti. This carving is the only remaining physical evidence of Lewis and Clark’s Expedition still around today. They’ve taken measures to protect it because there are tons of other names carved into the rocks around it, but you can clearly see his name under the glass.

IMGP1195Clark named the pillar “Pomp’s Pillar” using his nickname for Sacagawea’s son.

IMGP1176You can walk all the way up to the top using the 200 or so stairs. It’s worth it.

IMGP1180The view is great and there are benches up there you can use to rest up for the trip down if you need to. The little boys utilized the benches to work on their Junior Ranger Field Guides. You can also see our tour guide to the left of the picture.

IMGP1172Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and volunteered to take a picture of all of us.

IMGP1170He also pointed out a family of marmots

IMGP1173and showed us a rock that looks like a mountain lion!

IMGP1184There was a short, paved walk way that went down by the Yellowstone River. It was a nice leisurely stroll with some educational signs along the way.

We spent some time in the museum learning about the Lewis and Clark trail and some of the hardships they endured. There were replicas of boats they made and some rawhide clothing the boys could try on.

The visit didn’t take long and it was very educational for all of us. It was well worth the small entry fee.

See y’all down the road!

Makoshika State Park

Makoshika State Park

IMGP1097We thoroughly enjoyed our time at Makoshika (muh-KOH’-shih-kuh) State Park! What we thought would be an hour activity ended up being an entire day of hiking, gumbo, and other worldly rock formations!

It had rained in the area the entire day before we went to Makoshika. We knew we were in for some mud…but we didn’t expect gumbo. What is gumbo? It’s not what you think. There’s no shrimp or sausage or okra in it…you don’t eat this gumbo. This particular type of gumbo is a fine silty soil that forms an extremely sticky mud when it gets wet. It sticks to everything and makes perfectly good hiking boots completely useless.IMGP0892See that dark blackish brown stuff they’re all standing on? Yup, that’s gumbo. We slipped and slid up and down the Cap Rock Trail on this stuff for a good hour that morning and ended up having to turn back because we felt it was too dangerous to go on.  The rock formations were really other worldly. It felt like we’d been transported to the moon.

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The fact that we were the only ones on the trail added to the other worldly feeling. I think we would have spent another hour or so just on this trail if the gumbo hadn’t slipped us up so much. And honestly, if we’d known it was a loop trail we would have probably pushed on through, but the thought of having to climb back up some parts of the trail we had slipped down made us turn back. We want to go back when it’s dryer so we can finish the trail.

Once we were done we had to spend some time cleaning all that gumbo out of our hiking boots.IMGP0912It was quite the task.

 We took the scenic drive.IMG_0611It was full of wonderful views, some wildlife and more mud than we want to remember. We’re still cleaning it off our car! We were so glad to have a 4 wheel drive on this scenic drive…there were many parts we would have missed otherwise. Jerl had fun getting to actually use the 4 wheel drive function in all the mud and on all the hills. After the drive and some lunch we headed out for another hike.

This hike was supposed to be easy peasy and it was…until we lost the trail.IMGP1083It was after we had scrambled up a hill to get the view above that we realized the trail was gone. We could have just turned around and gone back the way we came, but where’s the fun in that?

IMGP1088Thankfully, by that time, the gumbo and dried and hardened and what would have been thick, slippery, sticky mud was now hard with what seemed like loose gravel on top…so it was still kind of slippery, but at least it wasn’t sticking to everything. After we slid down the picture above we spent some time trying to find the trail again.

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Nope…no trail to be found, so we blazed our own!IMGP1092We eventually found a way across a wet, sandy stream and through the field above to the park road…after we ran from a surprised snake. I’m not sure who was surprised more. Us or the snake…

IMGP1004IMGP0976IMGP0998IMGP0988We left Makoshika State park very muddy, very tired, very inspired and with some very cool memories of working together to find our way!

See y’all down the road!