Rocky Mountain High.......Montana

I think that I've found my new favorite place. Of all the places that I've been (admittedly limited), I think that this might be my favorite one.  It may also be that I've just returned from a fantastic week-long vacation and am still feeling that Rocky Mountain High.

Let me start with this: I LOVE the mountains.  Specifically the Rockies.  If you have never been, you are really missing out and you should book that trip post haste.  There's just a feeling you get (or at least I get)being in the mountains.  It gives me a perspective on life and on myself that I don't feel anywhere else.  But those awe-inspiring views make me feel and understand how small I really am.  It is humbling, and it is also very empowering.

I've vistited several different places throughout the Rockies.  Growing up in New Mexico, I've been several places there, of course.  About four years ago Ian and I took a trip to Colorado (Dillon, Ridgeway, Durango, Great Sand Dunes Nat'l Park, Colorado Springs), and the summer I was pregnant we went back to Colorado (Estes Park).  I have to say, though, my favorite Rocky Mountain state is Montana, specifically Bozeman, MT.

Bozeman is the home to Montana State University, and sits at the Northern end of the Gallatin Gateway along the Gallatin River that carves its way through the Gallatin Mountains.  The town is fantastic...not tourist-y in the least, it is quaint, it is sophisticated, it is homey.  Ian and I are considering creating a savings account to purchase a place there in retirement :-).

OK, enough of these ramblings...what I really wanted to share with you all was the highlights from our trip!  (By the way...the trip was sans girls!  A whole week away was a bit much...but we had such a good time, and got to do a lot of things that we just couldn't have done with them in tow.  Instead, they got to spend a great week going back and forth between the Petersens and Coopers.)

Most of the trip was spent hiking.  Well, the mornings.  It was fairly cool (highs around 65) and it rained every afternoon.  So we spent the mornings hiking and the afternoons reading in the coffee shop above the local food Co-op. 

On our way out there we stayed the first night in Wall, SD...home of the famous Wall Drug, where the ice water is free and the coffee is only 5 cents.  When we were there it was a drizzly 52 degrees outside, so we bypassed the water and splurged on the coffee.  Wall is also the closest town to the Badlands of SD...amazing.  If you haven't gone, you should.  It's a National Park, so it costs $15, but its well worth it just because its so freakin' cool.  I'm not completely sure about the geology of how it was created...something to do with the area having been covered by a shallow sea and then as it drained out these were created:

Once in Bozeman, the most difficult hike we took was a trail to the "Storm Castle" mountain peak. I'm not sure of the elevation, but it was 2.5 miles straight up a mountain side (and back down again) It took us just under three hours.

This the view from the top, overlooking the Squaw Creek valley.

The next two are up at the very top...I love the view of the snow-covered peaks behind Ian in this one.

 This is the only picture of both of us together...and now that I mention it there is only one other picture of Ian (above) and one other one of me. 

This is the view straight down from the top, if you follow the creek valley (horizontal), just to the left of the center is a bridge that crosses the creek (it looks like a grayish rock-looking thingy), just next to it (if you zoom in really close you can see it) is the car next to where we parked.

And...a view from the bottom looking up.  In the upper center of the photo you can sort of see a rock peaking out above the trees...that's the top.

Next, we went to Buffalo Jump State Park.  This is one of the places where the Native Americans who used to live here ran buffaloes off the cliff to kill them en masse instead of having to shoot each individual one. 

Here's the cliff they ran off, meat was processed (dried) and skins were tanned at the bottom:

And just a beautiful view from the trail here, notice the clouds rolling in over the mountains in the distance.  I just love that.

Our third day, we unsuccessfully tried two trails:

We were excited to try this trail by the Madison River, unfortunately, the river had washed out the trail about 10 minutes in...

The drive to this trail - Spanish Creek - held our favorite views of the whole trip.  The road goes through a valley owned by Ted Turner...and it was absolutely gorgeous (the pictures don't come close to doing it justice).

Instead of a river washing out this trail, we decided to turn around after running into a herd of buffalo covering the road.  Chances are, that if we had continued, they would have gotten out of our way.  But...considering that one of the buffaloes is about the same size as our car...and potentially way more aggressive...we opted for turning around.

We did find success that day on our third try, here's a breath-taking view from Indian Ridge:

 Those are the highlights!  In addition to the great hikes, and reading (of course Ian and I would spend a good chunk of our vacation reading...but here we got to do it in a great coffee shop with a marvelous mountain view), we also ate at some fantastic restaurants.  The best was our last night (fortunately...so it didn't spoil us for the rest of the trip), we ate a tapas-style restaurant and the food and wine was amazing. 

All in all...it was a great way to spend the beginning of summer vacation.  And now I'm happy to be home, with my girls.  Who, by the way, are just waking up from their (2 1/2 hour!!) nap...