Peckish Travels

In the question between beaches or mountains in terms of places to vacation and/or live, at least for those of us not fortunate enough to grow up around either, Bob and I tend to fall on the side of mountains. Obviously, both are great (as are forests and other types of geographic phenomena), but the photos from our in-town walk today reinforce my love for mountains, even as a backdrop.

We did about a 5 mile hike this afternoon by combining the trails around the Cherry River and Glen Lake, both in the valley below the Bridger Mountains, on a beautiful, sun-filled day. Enough said, I’ll let the photos do the talking today.

Pics from the Cherry River Trail Walk.

Pics from the Glen Lake Walk.

We’ve had a few days recently where it has rained off and on here in Bozeman. Luckily, we were able to get the lawn mowed yesterday in between the morning programmed watering schedule and the afternoon programmed watering schedule (followed by rain and then a brief storm later in the evening). The weather forecast keeps changing, but we had some rain today and look to have more tomorrow.

Today, we headed out for Palisade Falls because we wanted to see the waterfall, but also because there is a big music and art festival in Bozeman so we wanted to avoid activities near downtown to avoid traffic, which doesn’t seem to move well here. As per usual for the past few days, the sky was overcast, but it gave us some great views of low clouds against the Gallatin Mountains.

Palisade Falls is a towering waterfall dropping more than 80 feet off a vertical rock wall at the southern base of Palisade Mountain in the Hyalite Recreation Area south of Bozeman. And we will have to take the website’s word about, as we were unable to get there, but we did end up with a beautiful drive through national forest and walked a bit by the lovely Hyalite Reservoir.

Before we left for the Palisade Falls, we had read that the road to the trailhead was currently only open on Saturday and Sunday. We didn’t know why, but I assumed this was just the most popular time to visit. That could be the reason, but they are also doing roadwork, or maybe creating a paved road from what is a dirt road now. You can see below that with the rain, the dirt had become mud, serious mud in some areas. We made it past the construction vehicles in the photo before things got even worse, and we decided that without 4-wheel drive it might be best to turn around before someone had to dig us out.

We drove back to a picnic area we had passed and walked along a paved path near the reservoir, where some brave woman (local likely) as going in for a cool dip.

Today, we did a little over five-mile hike in and around Burke Park, which is near the sculpture garden we had explored on our first night in Bozeman. Listed by the city as moderate exertion, trails in the park take you up Peet’s Hill, which is supposedly the best sunset view in town . After walking the main trail (there are many) through the long, narrow parkland, we connected to a few other trails towards the west of town.

Yesterday, we headed to downtown Bozeman to walk Main Street to check out what this area had to offer. It’s a fairly small downtown area, about 8 blocks or so and not fully utilized, but it was still pretty vibrant with people out and about and lots of variety in retail and restaurants.

We ended our walkabout with a drink at the Armory Hotel, as its bar has a view.

Before getting into todays outing, a few fun facts about our current residence. In 2020, Bozeman had a population of about 54,000, which makes it the 4th largest city in Montana. It lies between the Gallatin and Bridger Mountain Ranges. It is the county seat of Gallatin County, and it has established an impressive Main Street to the Mountains Trail System, a part of which we walked today.

We began our walk at Bozeman Pond Park, which has a dog park (called Lewis and Bark), a fishing pond, as well as some playground equipment. We walked the trail through the park and then took a separate West Side Trail (part of the Main Street to the Mountains system), which followed a creek that emptied into the fishing pond and provided some good views of a number of neighborhoods. We ended up doing about 4 miles.

Below are pics from the outing.

Today was our first full day at our Bozeman, MT housesit, so we are at the beginning of starting a routine with the four dogs and two cats. The dogs, so far, have been much easier than I was anticipating. Eating and sleeping is mostly what all pets (and really humans too) desire it seems, with a little activity thrown in.

Our time out of the house for today began with a stop at the Bozeman Visitor Center to pick up a few pamphlets and magazines to identify possible activities for our two-week sit. Then, we headed to Montana State University (MSU) and a self-guided walk around their campus.

The university is located right in the center of town, just a couple of blocks from Main Street. The university was founded in 1893. It currently has an enrollment of over 16,000 students with around 250 different degree programs. It is among the top 3% of public colleges and universities in the nation in research spending, surpassing $200 million annually in 2022, with expertise in areas such as biomedical sciences, energy, optics, solar physics, agriculture (its focus on fisheries gives it its nickname Trout U), snow science (apparently, there is such a thing), Yellowstone studies, paleontology, and more.

Our walk seemed to be coinciding with New Student Orientation, as we saw a number of tour groups being lead around campus. The campus is attractive, but lacks helpful signage (as in campus maps). Many buildings seemed newer and were impressive. Two buildings we always like to find on campuses are their student unions and library. Unfortunately, these two buildings were unremarkable.

We ended our exploring at a Rosauers Market, a nicer local grocery. Plan A was to get ingredients for dinner, but their prepared foods section was so impressive, we picked up ready made salads and sandwiches. We’ll cook tomorrow.

Yesterday afternoon after Bob and I arrived at our hotel in Bozeman, we visited a sculpture park and library just a few blocks from the hotel. It was a fun introduction to our new community home for a couple of weeks.

The sculpture park was located in Lindsey Park behind the Bozeman Public Library, so we checked that out as well.

This morning at 8:00 am we met with the family for whom we are currently housesitting for the walk through before they left for a trip to London and then onto Scotland. We will be caring for 4 dogs and 2 cats while they are away.

As they have their unique meals and needs, we’re looking forward to getting to know each one a little better as well as this beautiful community.

Bob and I were up at 5:45 am today to start our drive from Rapid City, South Dakota to Bozeman, Montana for our next sit. However, before we even thought about heading to Montana, we had to see Mount Rushmore. Beth had never been there, and Bob hadn’t been there since high school. It was only a 30 minute drive from Rapid City.

As with yesterday and the advertising for Wall Drug, we passed a lot of touristy sites on the way to Mount Rushmore.

The Mount Rushmore National Memorial opens at 5:00 am daily, and the website encourages you to come before 9:00 am if you want to beat the crowds. After dressing, loading the car, checking out of the hotel, and filling up with gas, Bob and I got to the park a little before 7:00 am. There were only about 6 other people there. It was amazing. The only way to truly take in the incredible sculpture of Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, and Lincoln, but also the beauty of the memorial and the natural surroundings.

After we left the park , we had about a 7.5 hour drive to Bozeman, Montana, beginning by heading back into Rapid City, South Dakota. The entire drive from Rapid City through a little bit of Wyoming and then through Montana to Bozeman was really scenic and gave us a greater appreciation for this large, geographically varied country.

Early this morning (about 6:45 am), we left the sweet Becca and headed towards Rapid City, South Dakota, on our way to our next housesit in Bozeman, Montana.

We loved our St. Paul housesit, maybe because both of us being Midwesterners, it felt like home — only with awesome bike paths. The drive today was 8.5 hours without stops.

Bob and I gave equal opportunity to each of the Twin Cities today by doing a guided tour of the Union Depot in St. Paul and then doing our own “tour” of Lake Nokomis by walking the 2.5 mile trail around it. We continue to enjoy all the many free activities that this area offers.

I had read about the free historical tour of Union Depot on the Visit St. Paul website. These tours are just getting started and are currently being offered twice a month. We parked in the farthest Union Depot parking lot for $2.00. The tour was an hour long and provided by Cynthia of Cyn City Tours, who is paid a flat rate from Union Depot to conduct them. She also does haunted tours of the depot in October.

The current Union Depot building is the 3rd one on the site, the first two having been destroyed by fires that started in on-site restaurants. The original Union Depot opened in 1881 after James J. Hill (of the house tour that we did) convinced the other railroad owners to create one main hub. The current building was started in 1917 but didn’t open until 1923. It underwent renovations from 2010-2012.

After the tour, we drove into Minneapolis to Lake Nokomis Park for a walk around the lake. Even at midday on a Tuesday, both the lake and the pathway were being enjoyed.