North Dakota and Montana
After a summer with friends and family, we said our goodbyes for our long stretch out west and south.
We left Minnesota to head across North Dakota with a whirlwind overnight stay near Medora, ND to visit Theodore Roosevelt National Park and the new TR Presidential Library. We arrived in the late afternoon, and took a sunset drive through the park where we saw bison, wild horses, a coyote, and loads of prairie dogs. It was a shockingly beautiful landscape and it kind of bummed me out that people have spoken poorly of this North Dakota national park! It was an absolute gem. The town of Medora is quaint and nestled comfortably into the landscape around it. The next morning, we got up early, hooked up the RV, and pulled it up to the Presidential Library. This library opened July 4th, and we visited just two weeks later on the 18th! It was truly incredible. The architecture, the walk through TR’s life in such immersive experiences, and the involvement for the kids was just amazing. We even got to meet TR and his family (actors who reprise the roles and walk around the library). There were even several moments that had me in tears. Teddy’s life was tragic but monumental.
It wasn’t lost on me how meaningful it was to truly begin our full-time journey at Teddy Roosevelt’s national park - the president who expanded our parks and pushed for conservation. What a place to start.
All that said - I can’t recommend the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library enough. It was an absolute must see.
We then started the drive to Montana. We first spent a week in Big Timber. This was a quiet little town about an hour east of Bozeman. We stayed at Spring Creek Campground at a riverside site with a gorgeous rushing river off our back porch. The boys and I spent days in the calmer creek running through the middle of the campground to cool off on hot days, and going into town to the playground and library. We even caught a “raptor show” - a wildlife refuge for birds was doing an educational event in the town theater. The only hike we managed here was to Natural Bridge Falls and it was very beautiful. We loved our time in Big Timber and all the kind people we met at the campground.
Next in Montana, we drove down to Ennis. We stayed a week at Ennis RV Park. Here, we were in a valley flanked by mountains on either side so our views were gorgeous from sunrise to sunset and the downtown was super charming. This wasn’t a very social campground, but we spent more of our time in the nearby mountain towns and caught some live music one night in Ennis. Virginia City was a neighboring town and was full of cool pioneer and gold rush history and even Montana’s oldest saloon. It was pretty hot during our time here, but just a few minutes up the road was Norris Hot Springs and I couldn’t resist giving the boys the chance to experience a hot springs pool! We had a great time swimming there and you could even eat and drink while IN the pool (along the edge of course) since they drain it out every night. Tom tried his hand at fly fishing some of the mountain rivers here, but no luck - partly because of the heat. The views alone would bring us back to Ennis!
Our next stop was our longest stop since our time in Michigan - two weeks in Columbia Falls - 15 minutes north of Kalispell and 10 minutes southeast of Whitefish. We stayed at Whispering Pines and loved this campground. Lush grass, large sites, and great water pressure! Lots of friendly neighbors, too! The only bummer about our two weeks here was all the wildfire smoke. Air quality was bad most of the time, so we spent more days inside than we would have liked. We did, however, spend three separate days in Glacier National Park - a park I was eagerly awaiting! It absolutely blew me away, and I hope we go back when it’s a little less smokey. We did several hikes: Hidden Lake, Avalanche Lake, and Virginia Falls. We also walked along Lake McDonald and Trail of the Cedars. Driving Going to the Sun Road at 4:30am to reach Hidden Lake at daybreak was totally worth it (in a rental car because our truck was over the size limit). It’s hard to put into words something so stunning, so I’ll let the photos do the talking. Columbia Falls also does a weekly rodeo in the summer so we also got to catch that which was very entertaining. The little kids on bucking mini horses!! Roping teams for calves? So impressive to see those kinds of skills in person and we all had a blast. Whitefish was also such a gem. A little touristy, but not bustling… lots of cute shops and restaurants. I took the boys to a public beach here and we stayed for hours and hours. A mountain lake can’t be beat! And it was nice to have some comforts of home in Kalispell… meaning… Costco ;) Anywhere near Glacier is definitely worth a return visit, in my opinion, and we will absolutely be back!
Our last week, we stayed in the town of Libby. It was cute, but it was mostly a stopover for us before heading up to Canada. We did a quick hike here that had some beautiful falls.
After five wonderful weeks in Montana, it was going to be hard to top the scenery, but we’ll see…
