Montana: How We Spent Our Time
I had heard Montana was beautiful, but it truly surpassed any and every expectation.
When we weren't spending our days at Yellowstone National Park (read about that part of our trip here), we stayed close to where we were staying in Emigrant, Montana and took in all the big sky country.
Emigrant is located smack dab in Paradise Valley- an area between the Absaroka Mountain Range to the east and the Gallatin Mountain Range to the west. I know things are named for a reason- this place was as close to paradise as my eyes have ever seen. It was green, hilly, and mountainous. You could see for miles and miles and miles and the stars?! I've never seen them so bright. Out every single window at our Airnbn rental, there was a gorgeous view and it never ever got old.
Because Emigrant is such a small town (not even 300 people), civilization was pretty far away and nature was our playground. There was so much to see, so many places to explore, and we hardly ever saw any people. We loved staying very close-by and taking walks, running through the sprinkler, playing Dominos and ping pong. I also made my family do a climb up a very steep hill near our rental. I will do a lot of risky things for a good view and a good picture opp. My family wasn't happy with me, but it was stunning ;)
Here are a few other things we did near Emigrant:
Hiked Pine Creek Lake Trailhead
Our longest hike at over 2.5 miles. The boys did great and Preston even walked almost the whole thing. The payoff? a gorgeous waterfall! We had heard this trail was beautiful and it did not disappoint: a lot of forest, but also rocky cliffs, little streams, and rocks for climbing. There is a longer hike you can do there as well and a campground, but that hike was plenty for us ;)
Dailey Lake
Even though Dailey Lake was basically across the street, it took about thirty minutes to get there because of having to drive around the Yellowstone River and several cattle ranches. It's a fishing, boating, and camping lake, but we used it to swim and throw a ridiculous amounts of rocks, which I'm sure made the fisherman near us not even a little annoyed ;) Thank GOODNESS the people out west are so freaking nice. Even though Montana is absolutely stunning, we were all missing being near water so this was a perfect little slice of that.
Visiting the Nearest Elementary School
The Hundts cannot travel without finding playgrounds and where better to do that than an elementary school?! Arrowhead Elementary's playground rocked. #hundboysx4 had the place to themselves and the backdrop to this playground was beautiful! I love traveling to other places and going to play at a playground and thinking about all the kids who play on that at recess. These kids probably think nothing of the 360 degree mountain views, but I couldn't look away.
#daytrippin to Bozeman
The Hundts also can't pass up a solid day trip, even when we are already traveling! Bozeman, Montana was only an hour away so we took a day to explore and play there. I can't say enough about how much I loved that city! It had an adorable downtown with restaurants, shops, and art galleries. There were a ton of things to do in nature like hiking the M Trail (which we did most of until some of our hikers got tired). There was a beautiful college, Montana State, to drive around and explore as well as several parks. We also hit up not one, not two, but THREE playgrounds, which were all amazing. And, I may have had the best ice cream I've ever had at Sweet Peaks. We eat ice cream wherever we travel, plus we have Quality Dairy Death by Chocolate near home so I know a thing or two ;)
I'm so glad we were able to stay out there so long and have a full week to be able to jam in all that we did in Montana/Yellowstone and still get a lot of time close to our rental so it only semi-felt like we lived in the car! I could never say enough good things about this area of the world. My pictures don't even do it an ounce of justice- that's truly how 'paradisy' it is!
When we weren't spending our days at Yellowstone National Park (read about that part of our trip here), we stayed close to where we were staying in Emigrant, Montana and took in all the big sky country.
Emigrant is located smack dab in Paradise Valley- an area between the Absaroka Mountain Range to the east and the Gallatin Mountain Range to the west. I know things are named for a reason- this place was as close to paradise as my eyes have ever seen. It was green, hilly, and mountainous. You could see for miles and miles and miles and the stars?! I've never seen them so bright. Out every single window at our Airnbn rental, there was a gorgeous view and it never ever got old.
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| Why fold laundry inside when you can sit on a deck with this background? |
Because Emigrant is such a small town (not even 300 people), civilization was pretty far away and nature was our playground. There was so much to see, so many places to explore, and we hardly ever saw any people. We loved staying very close-by and taking walks, running through the sprinkler, playing Dominos and ping pong. I also made my family do a climb up a very steep hill near our rental. I will do a lot of risky things for a good view and a good picture opp. My family wasn't happy with me, but it was stunning ;)
 |
| An awesome picture despite the not-so-awesome climb to get up there ;) |
Here are a few other things we did near Emigrant:
Hiked Pine Creek Lake Trailhead
Our longest hike at over 2.5 miles. The boys did great and Preston even walked almost the whole thing. The payoff? a gorgeous waterfall! We had heard this trail was beautiful and it did not disappoint: a lot of forest, but also rocky cliffs, little streams, and rocks for climbing. There is a longer hike you can do there as well and a campground, but that hike was plenty for us ;)
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| Fallen trees to climb?! Um, yes please. |
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| Just part of the gorgeous scenery on the trail |
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| Pièce de résistance |
Dailey Lake
Even though Dailey Lake was basically across the street, it took about thirty minutes to get there because of having to drive around the Yellowstone River and several cattle ranches. It's a fishing, boating, and camping lake, but we used it to swim and throw a ridiculous amounts of rocks, which I'm sure made the fisherman near us not even a little annoyed ;) Thank GOODNESS the people out west are so freaking nice. Even though Montana is absolutely stunning, we were all missing being near water so this was a perfect little slice of that.
 |
| Dailey Lake |
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| Throwing rocks & wading in water = #hundtboysx4 favorite things |
Visiting the Nearest Elementary School
The Hundts cannot travel without finding playgrounds and where better to do that than an elementary school?! Arrowhead Elementary's playground rocked. #hundboysx4 had the place to themselves and the backdrop to this playground was beautiful! I love traveling to other places and going to play at a playground and thinking about all the kids who play on that at recess. These kids probably think nothing of the 360 degree mountain views, but I couldn't look away.
#daytrippin to Bozeman
The Hundts also can't pass up a solid day trip, even when we are already traveling! Bozeman, Montana was only an hour away so we took a day to explore and play there. I can't say enough about how much I loved that city! It had an adorable downtown with restaurants, shops, and art galleries. There were a ton of things to do in nature like hiking the M Trail (which we did most of until some of our hikers got tired). There was a beautiful college, Montana State, to drive around and explore as well as several parks. We also hit up not one, not two, but THREE playgrounds, which were all amazing. And, I may have had the best ice cream I've ever had at Sweet Peaks. We eat ice cream wherever we travel, plus we have Quality Dairy Death by Chocolate near home so I know a thing or two ;)
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| This is grizzly tracks and an amazing s'more flavor with whisky soaked marshmallows |
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| We pretended to take a picture after finishing the M-Trail. We were really only like half way up ;) |
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