Re: I always fly into Billings because that is where my daughter and SIL are,
Originally posted by Freddie.B.Cocky:
We visited Yellowstone and Jackson Hole for over a week back in Sept. of 2013, just before I retired. If we had planned it right we could have extended our stay and visited GNP while we were at Yellowstone.
But, anyway I have bought a book on Montana that is suppose to descript every spot, road, tourist sights, etc in the entire state. Yes, it is one big state and I know that even with 10 days, I won't be able to see a tenth of the area. But, I have been looking at maps and like I said bought a book- Moon Handbooks for Montana by W.C. McRae & Judy Jewell. So, I hope that helps me a lot but just looking at a map of Montana I thought Billings would be kind of in the center of the state.
This post was edited on 3/4 10:12 PM by Freddie.B.Cocky
Freddie, if you are planning to see the highlights of Montana, I would probably make Bozeman the "center" of my trip. Billings may be the geographic center of the state, but most of the sights are west of Billings where the mountains are. Having said that, Little Big Horn battlefield is a must-see, but it's more of a drive-to-and-come-back kind of place rather than an stop-along-the-way kind of place as far as Montana is concerned.
As for Yellowstone, I know you probably feel like you saw all of it and maybe you have. My wife and I have been to Yellowstone many times - we used to go to Jackson Hole every other year. But we had never been through the northeast corner of the park before and I HIGHLY recommend seeing that part of the park if you find yourself in Bozeman with time to do a daytrip down to Yellowstone. We saw more bison in the Lamar River Valley there in the northeast corner of the park in one day that we have seen on all our previous Yellowstone trips combined. It was spectacular as the great Yellowstone bison heard stretched out for miles along the Lamar River. But the absolute best part of the day was driving the Beartooth Pass after leaving the park and heading back to Bozeman via Red Lodge. I am not exaggerating when I say that the drive on the Beartooth Highway rivals any drive we made on the trip, including the Going-to-the-Sun road in Glacier. If you have not made that drive before, it is an absolute must-do trip if you plan to spend 10 days in Montana.
We will be making a similar trip to yours in Montana the week before Labor Day this year. We're flying into Bozeman and spending 8 nights making a loop around Western Montana. We've made this trip before, so we have it down pretty well by now, but we've never taken our son with us and now that he is 8 years old, he's old enough to appreciate it.
If you like horseback riding there's a pretty good coral operator down at Big Sky resort called Jake's Horses who runs trail rides. Our son loves riding, so we're going to do the short 2 hour trip into the National Forests there. It's a very scenic ride up into the highlands with great views of Lone Mountain. He has a website.
Don't miss the National Bison Range about 50 - 60 miles north of Missoula off of Highway 93 (on your way to Glacier from Missoula). It's a one-way gravel road loop up into the higher elevations. You're virtually guaranteed to see bison, elk, mule deer, big horn sheep, and antelope, and you may also spot black bears. And, as always in Montana, the scenery is awesome.
If you like History, Helena is a nice town to spend a day on your way back from Glacier. Tours of the state capitol building are free and the Montana State History museum is right across the street.
If you like western art, the C.M. Russell art museum in Great Falls is as good as it gets.
