Forum Discussion

Cup_fan's avatar
Cup_fan
Explorer
Feb 23, 2016

Montana it is! Oh yea...where?

We originally decided to go to Yellowstone this summer. Staying in West Yellowstone, the plan was to spend 3 days seeing the park, and then take a day trip into Montana. There will be 5 of us taking this trip, and the talk of Montana is what lit everyone's eyes up. Plus I didn't feel that only 3 days in Yellowstone would do it justice, and felt that it would be best to make that it's own destination another time. But the question now, is where in Montana? We we will be towing the travel trailer, and the women want to see the Little Bighorn Battlefield. From there we would hit I-90 and head west. For the past two weeks, I've been researching the internet, studying maps, searching posts on this forum, and I'm nowhere closer to figuring it out than when I started. So its either throw a dart at the map, or ask for help from people who have been there. Now for me, Glacier is the no brainer choice. But I'm unsure about it due to the extra distance plus pulling a 35ft travel trailer. I haven't completely ruled it out, but I wanted to explore some closer options. We will have 4 days in which to explore. Our main interests, in addition to the scenery, are ghost towns, waterfalls, rock hounding, wildlife viewing, and hiking. Although the hikes can't be too strenuous. We'd like to land in one spot and explore maybe a 50 mile radius, a quadrant each day. And will need full hookups, if possible. I do have a tote I can take if I have to. So far, I'm looking at the Helena area, which would allow a day trip to Great Falls, where my wife's family has some history there. They have a many times Great Uncle who was sherrif there in the 1800's and is buried there. I'm also looking at the Livingston/Red Lodge area which would allow a day trip into the northeast section of Yellowstone. Beyond that, I'm not sure...Butte area maybe? Or should we just "go big or go home" and set sail for Glacier and not look back?
  • ReneeG's avatar
    ReneeG
    Explorer
    Feb 23, 2016
    BozemanTrail wrote:
    Can you find more time? Montana is pretty big and you'll be spending a lot of time driving around the state with only four days.

    I'd say pick one place and stay closer. For example, if you stay in Ennis or Bozemn, you can hit up Virginia City/Nevada City, Lewis and Clark Caverns, Bozeman and other stuff around there. I don't think I'd pick Helena as the city to stay in -- not the best rv parks and pretty far away from places.


    Agree, but don't forget Missouri Headwaters State Park in Three Forks. Well worth the trip, especially if you are a Lewis and Clark buff. Staying in the area suggested here still affords you the opportunity to see West Yellowstone and the NW area of Yellowstone, heading out the North Entrance through Red Lodge and back to your area. We've done that several times using West Yellowstone as our home base.
  • Cup_fan's avatar
    Cup_fan
    Explorer
    Feb 23, 2016
    Corky, that's kind of the general area I've been doing most of my research. The Battlefield will be a stop off on the way to our destination and isn't part of the 4 days that we have to explore. We will be there July 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th. Unfortunately that's all we're going to get since my mother is the only one in the group that is retired. The rest of us are taking vacation time from our jobs. That's why we'd like to find one spot to park the RV and spend the 4 days exploring that area without having to move the RV each day. I know that Montana is huge and there's so much to see. We're just trying to get the biggest bang for our buck with the limited time we have.
  • J_herb's avatar
    J_herb
    Explorer
    Feb 23, 2016
    bukhrn wrote:
    3 days at Yellowstone will only scratch the surface, not to mention, completely missing the Grand Tetons.
    As far as "day tripping" from West Yellowstone, W. Yellowstone in IN Montana, but if it was me, I'd skip any day trips and just head up to Glacier NP.
    Little Big Horn is a half day stop off of I-90 at best.


    what he said!

    been to Yellowstone and Tetons 3 times and spent a week each time and didn't see it all, we have been all over Montana and it's big and you need lots of time to see it.
    We hope to be their this fall and see places that we have missed than head to South Dakota than back into Wyoming and work our way back home.
    We are retired and hope to be gone for 4 or 5 weeks.
  • Murphsmom's avatar
    Murphsmom
    Explorer
    Feb 23, 2016
    Corky12 wrote:
    Many, many more interesting places than Glacier in Montana. Given your limited time I would suggest a circle from Livingston, Helena, Butte, Virginia City, Ennis, Bozeman and back to Livingston. No way you could cover all of that but concentrate your research in that area.


    I totally agree with this! ^

    The Battlefield is an interesting stop, but you can really see it in less than a day. We were there last May. My husband was quite interested by the logistics of the battle, but I found the whole place to be very depressing.
  • Busskipper's avatar
    Busskipper
    Explorer
    Feb 23, 2016
    Cup fan wrote:
    We originally decided to go to Yellowstone this summer. Staying in West Yellowstone, the plan was to spend 3 days seeing the park, and then take a day trip into Montana. There will be 5 of us taking this trip, and the talk of Montana is what lit everyone's eyes up. Plus I didn't feel that only 3 days in Yellowstone would do it justice, and felt that it would be best to make that it's own destination another time. But the question now, is where in Montana? We we will be towing the travel trailer, and the women want to see the Little Bighorn Battlefield. From there we would hit I-90 and head west. For the past two weeks, I've been researching the internet, studying maps, searching posts on this forum, and I'm nowhere closer to figuring it out than when I started. So its either throw a dart at the map, or ask for help from people who have been there. Now for me, Glacier is the no brainer choice. But I'm unsure about it due to the extra distance plus pulling a 35ft travel trailer. I haven't completely ruled it out, but I wanted to explore some closer options. We will have 4 days in which to explore. Our main interests, in addition to the scenery, are ghost towns, waterfalls, rock hounding, wildlife viewing, and hiking. Although the hikes can't be too strenuous. We'd like to land in one spot and explore maybe a 50 mile radius, a quadrant each day. And will need full hookups, if possible. I do have a tote I can take if I have to. So far, I'm looking at the Helena area, which would allow a day trip to Great Falls, where my wife's family has some history there. They have a many times Great Uncle who was sherrif there in the 1800's and is buried there. I'm also looking at the Livingston/Red Lodge area which would allow a day trip into the northeast section of Yellowstone. Beyond that, I'm not sure...Butte area maybe? Or should we just "go big or go home" and set sail for Glacier and not look back?


    GO BIG

    Make it a loop - at least see it even if you only drive by - IMHO beats missing it - Denver to Rifle - to Yellowstone - to Glacier - then back to Red Lodge and Cody - Home - driving through all the locations possible with the only real stop in Glacier.

    When?
    How Long?
    Dreams?
    Limitations?

    Give us more real info and maybe we can help.

    BOL,
  • BozemanTrail's avatar
    BozemanTrail
    Explorer
    Feb 23, 2016
    Can you find more time? Montana is pretty big and you'll be spending a lot of time driving around the state with only four days.

    I'd say pick one place and stay closer. For example, if you stay in Ennis or Bozemn, you can hit up Virginia City/Nevada City, Lewis and Clark Caverns, Bozeman and other stuff around there. I don't think I'd pick Helena as the city to stay in -- not the best rv parks and pretty far away from places.
  • bukhrn's avatar
    bukhrn
    Explorer III
    Feb 23, 2016
    3 days at Yellowstone will only scratch the surface, not to mention, completely missing the Grand Tetons.
    As far as "day tripping" from West Yellowstone, W. Yellowstone in IN Montana, but if it was me, I'd skip any day trips and just head up to Glacier NP.
    Little Big Horn is a half day stop off of I-90 at best.
  • agesilaus's avatar
    agesilaus
    Explorer III
    Feb 23, 2016
    Little Bighorn is in the eastern part of the state and just a few miles off the interstate. It was surprisingly interesting, I have avoided it even tho we passed by it a number of times but my son wanted to see it. I think the NPS did a poor job of organizing the park tho and made it more difficult to see the place.

    We spent a lot of time in Montana last summer and everywhere we stopped was interesting. Ghost towns are all over the place. My son is planning to attend Montana State in Bozeman. We went to the east side of Glacier but the Going to the Sun road was still closed. We spent 3 days looking at other places in the park. Then after a trip to Banff we came back down on the west side of Glacier and the GTSR was still closed. But we found enough to do for 3 more days.

    Then we took our time going south and stopped at a couple of small towns which all had lots to do. We have only been thru Helena and Butte and haven't stopped near there.

    I was surprised at the many lakes and rivers in the west part of the state.
  • Corky12's avatar
    Corky12
    Explorer
    Feb 23, 2016
    Many, many more interesting places than Glacier in Montana. Given your limited time I would suggest a circle from Livingston, Helena, Butte, Virginia City, Ennis, Bozeman and back to Livingston. No way you could cover all of that but concentrate your research in that area.

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