What We Did
CO → WY → MT
We left Steamboat super early to get a jump on the long drive (about 10 hours). It was 2 hours of driving before the sun rose, by which time we were already across the Wyoming border. We stopped for breakfast sandwiches in a tiny town before continuing. Katon had to work from the car, so Grace carried most of the load on this one. Wyoming is incredibly empty, but not in a boring way. The drive went through mountains, plains, valleys, and canyons. It was one of the most remote drives we’ve done yet. At one point, we went through a herd of about 60 deer running across the road. By now, it’s crazy that a 10-hour drive really didn’t feel like much to us. Before we knew it, we were pulling into Belgrade in the early afternoon.
Belgrade
Our place in Belgrade was on the lower floor of a four-plex in a little neighborhood by the airport. We later found out that the little neighborhood was basically the entire town. There’s one main street with a couple of restaurants and bars, and that’s about it. It definitely felt rural, but the neighborhood was dense in a way that it could’ve been any other suburb.
Bozeman
Belgrade is just a 15-minute drive down the road from Bozeman, with really nothing in between. We went to Bozeman a couple of times. The first time, we went out on a Friday for dinner, drinks, and a concert at the ELM. We saw Railroad Earth, a jamband described as a bluegrass-Grateful Dead mix. It was cool to see a dedicated fan base in the crowd, and we felt like we really got to experience a random night in Bozeman.
We came back on a Sunday for brunch, beers, and bones! We hit a few local breweries before heading to the Museum of the Rockies, which houses a large collection of T-Rex and Triceratops fossils. Apparently, a lot of major dinosaur discoveries were made in the area. The museum is right on the Montana State campus, so we got to see a little bit of the school and the surrounding neighborhood. It reminded us a lot of Boulder.
Skiing
We spent both of our Saturdays skiing in Big Sky. The name is definitely apt – the mountain was enormous. Big Sky is centered around Lone Peak, a triple-black-only behemoth that can be seen for miles. The surrounding mountains stretch north and south from Lone Peak, where most of the more doable runs are. There are three distinct areas that we later learned used to be separate ski resorts. The sheer size of the place meant that, even though there were a lot of people, it never felt too crowded.
The first day we went, we did the Ski the Sky loop – a preplanned tour of the mountain designed to make it feel more manageable and give a little taste of every area. This was definitely the right move. We saw lots of little corners and highlights that we wouldn’t have found otherwise. When we went back the next Saturday, we stuck to our favorite areas, trying more new runs along the way. We still didn’t come close to seeing all the mountain had to offer. Definitely need to come back.
Thoughts
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We felt a bit of the “Bozangeles Effect” – downtown Bozeman was almost too trendy and cool, and we saw lots of ads for a brand wanting to “Make Bozeman Montana Again.”
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The weather was surprisingly mild, staying in the high 20s to mid-40s and very sunny.
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It was cool to see how much fly-fishing is a way of life – we saw a bunch of fly-fishers in the river on the way to Big Sky, even in below-freezing temps
Favorites
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Big Sky - May be the best ski mountain in the country. Special shoutout to our favorite runs: Lookout Ridge, Bighorn, and Ambush.
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Museum of the Rockies - Super cool museum that illuminated how full of dinosaurs the area once was.
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Bar 3 BBQ - Barbecue and brewery right down the street from us in Belgrade.
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Bozeman Brewing Company - Microbrew tasting room in the historic beer district.
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Outlaw Brewing - Another microbrew with an extensive selection.
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Whistlepig - Korean bibimbap restaurant downtown.
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Bozeman Hot Springs - Saunas, steam rooms, hot tubs, cold plunges, and pools. Very relaxing way to warm up.