All Things Montana

It should come as no surprise to you that I now want to live in Montana.  There, I’ve said it.  I know I fall head over heels in love with pretty much every place I visit, but this time I mean it.  Being a beach and lake enthusiast, I didn’t think I could picture myself living here, but the Yellowstone River, which flows behind the campground, and the majestic mountains have truly changed my mind. We are already thinking about booking sites here for next summer.

With Kevin comfortably tucked into a spacious site with a patio and a fire pit, we will be experiencing Livingston’s finest offerings over the next few days (more time out and about and less time to write – which is how it should be!). Everyone slept in this morning… I’m not sure if an air horn would have woken these kids up.  I love when Rob and I can slip away for an hour or so on these early mornings, and get a little precious time to ourselves.  Leaving a note saying we were going for “coffee”, we headed into the sweet little center of Livingston (population 7,575) where it looks like you stepped back in time.  From the false Western storefronts to the retro movie theater and the vintage little shops and cafes, it has that warm, small-town feel to it.  For several blocks behind the main drag, you can find municipal buildings and homes neatly landscaped, all set with the backdrop of these incredible mountains!  It’s picture-perfect.  

After picking up a coffee from Coffee Crossing, a quirky little coffee shop next to the Empire Movie Theater (two screens), we headed to the Town & Country grocery store.  I don’t know about anyone else, but I love visiting a local grocery store.  Finding all sorts of local treats is one of my favorite things to do when we visit a new area and no place is better than the shop where the locals do their shopping.  We picked up a few bottles of Montana wines (I don’t know how good they will be, but the names were interesting.  Don’t you pick your wines by their names?), a Montana New England I.P.A. (weird, right?  We thought so too!), local huckleberry honey (which is purple), Montana grass-fed beef burgers, and Montana bacon.

Back at camp, everyone was in various stages of breakfast and getting dressed.  Rob, Alyssa, and Marlie headed to Bear Paw horseback riding while I gave Amaya and Kai a little independent time to explore Livingston.  Every single day of this trip, I am so grateful that BOTH of my kids are with me, but I also appreciate their need for space.  After three full days cooped up in Kevin, I knew Amaya and Kai would come back rejuvenated if they could just slip away for an hour or so (it took me so long to learn this lesson) and clear their minds.  Would you believe that Amaya took the exact photo I took of the Empire Movie Theater earlier that day?  Sometimes coincidences like that give me the shivers.  It also reminds me that she is, in fact, my kid, and likes oddities in much the same way I do.

Horseback riding was a smashing success!  Both girls and Rob were able to ride out into the mountains and over streams with their guide.  Seeing the landscape from atop a horse is an entirely different experience.  Not only did they venture off the beaten path, but they got up-close and personal with white-tailed deer and gophers.  This is the way to see the land.  This is how you learn to appreciate the Earth and all its wildlife.

After a dip in the pool and a quick dinner of those Montana grass-fed burgers (delicious, incidentally), we headed out for a sunset, scenic raft ride down the Yellowstone River.  I didn’t think it was going to happen since I called so late in the day (i.e. two hours before we took off), but Rowdy from Rowdy River Guides was able to set us up with Tyler who took us on a three hour float.  Just bring a light jacket, he said.

This activity was my pick and it was EPIC.  Who gets to take a private rafting trip down the Yellowstone watching the sunset over the Crazies?  If you think you would get tired of seeing mountains, rocks, a river, cows, deer and grassland, I am here to tell you that you are wrong.  I will never get tired of the majestic scenery. 

Tyler was the perfect Montana rafting guide, very knowledgeable about the area and extremely personable.  He took us rock hunting for agates on a few of the rocky shores.  Marlie ended up with the only agate, and sadly, she dropped it into the river cleaning it off – a bit of a bummer.  Good thing she collected at least 50 other rocks, the heaviest of which strangely ended up in my backpack.  In fact, all the kids picked up some beautiful rocks, weighing down their pockets.  We now have an embarrassingly large rock collection underneath the camper… it sure would be a shame if some disappeared before we leave on Saturday…

Besides the gorgeous scenery surrounding us, our trip down the river yielded a few fun surprises:

• A baby skunk following us along the shoreline, paddling in the water
• A baby racoon scampering up the riverbank
• Whitetail deer hiding in the shrubbery on the bank of the river
• Cows grazing near little offshoots of the river
• a  glimpse of John Mayer’s house (you read that right… THE John Mayer… apparently he is very good to the Livingston community, holding concerts and pouring all the proceeds into local organizations)

• Tiny rapids that soaked Amaya (poor girl, she was frozen for the last half hour of the trip)
• Fish flipping and flopping out of the water

Overall, we all loved this little adventure, but would have loved it more had we brought something more substantial than a light jacket.  By the end of the journey, we were all incredibly punchy, chilled to the bone, and a little nervous since a summer storm rolled in and caught us while we were still a good quarter mile from shore.  Poor Tyler rowed with all his might.  There’s nothing like being afloat on the river on a raft when a bolt of lightning slashes open the sky!  Eventually, we hightailed it to the car, cranked the heat and headed back to the safety of Kevin.  

I think about days like these and wonder if the kids will remember everything we’ve done on the trip together. Probably not. They will most likely remember thawing out inside the RV while rain hammered the roof, playing MadLibs and eating popcorn with Rob’s sister and her family. I will remember for all of us because these are the best days. And even if they don’t remember how many deer we saw on the riverbank or the color of the sun as it disappeared behind the mountains, they will remember how they felt when all of us were together.

Thumbs up for our first full day in Montana.  I give it an A-… but only because I still haven’t seen a buffalo.

“Oh Montana, give this child a home

Give him the love of a good family and a woman of his own

Give him a fire in his heart, give him a light in his eyes

Give him the wild wind for a brother and the wild Montana skies”

~John Denver