Montana Trip -- Beartooth Highway

 On Thursday we decided to drive the Beartooth Highway, which came highly recommended by my guide books and by people who had been there.  The Beartooth Highway is 68 miles of road connecting Redlodge, MT to one of the entrances to Yellowstone.  We drove to Redlodge, which is a fun little town, and then headed out on the highway.  It was kind of a cold and drizzly day, but the highway was still incredibly gorgeous.  It winds up into the mountains with amazing views, lots of places to stop for big or little hikes, and some heartstopping driving.

Our first stop was this beautiful little waterfall by the side of the road.

There were beautiful wildflowers everywhere.

Next we pulled over to explore this plain and stunning view.  Again, the wildflowers were gorgeous, and we encountered some snow!

We kept driving until we found a lovely spot with two little lakes.  We hiked around them and decided to eat lunch there.  The water was crystal clear and cold!  We didn't see much wildlife, but it was a beautiful place to eat lunch.

From there we drove to a hike that went around a much bigger lake.  Again, completely gorgeous, and the flowers!

Z and Nathan noticed this rock and added the little stones to make a smiley face.

Finally we headed back to Redlodge.  We ate dinner at a place called Homestead BBQ.  It was sooo good.  We got ribs and pulled pork, coleslaw and some kind of corn salad (which was awesome), and beans (which surprisingly weren’t all that good).  I forgot to take a picture at the beginning, so here’s one of the carnage after we ate it all.

Montana Trip - The Cabin

We headed out the next morning and decided to stop briefly at Devil's Tower in Wyoming since the kids have never seen it.  Then on to Nye, MT and our little cabin.  We stopped for snacks and Z got a bag of sunflower seeds, in the shell.  Eden asked why he didn't just get shelled seeds, and Z said, "Sunflower seeds with the shell on are great.  They're like a video game for your tongue!"

The property where we stayed was beautiful, right in the Beartooth Mountains with a stream just a few yards from the cabin.  We unpacked and settled in for the night.  There were lots of gnats once it got dark, and they were very attracted to the lights.  Z was sleeping upstairs in a little room with a double bed that had another little room adjacent to it with two twins.  When it was time for bed we cleared all the gnats off his pillows and bed and turned off the light so they wouldn't keep coming into the room.  But it seems he was a little unsettled by it, because the next morning we discovered that he had done a little sleepwalking!  He left his own bed and went into the room with the two twins and tried out both of them.  He woke up in the second one the next morning, but we could tell he'd been in both because the covers were back in both of them.  Our first full day in Montana we stayed around the cabin, played in the stream, damned the stream, and hiked up the mountain with Annie, the local horse.

Devil's Tower

There are the mountains!

Our cabin.

The stream on the property

Annie the horse.

Hiking the mountain behind the cabin.

Nathan and Z hiked way up high.  You can see them right in the middle of the picture, under the blue sky, between the two pine trees.

Damning the stream.

Montana Trip -- Spearfish Canyon

Last week we had a family vacation to Nye, Montana, with stops in the Black Hills coming and going.  On our way there we stopped at Wall Drug.  I personally hate Wall, but Z, like his father, has an affinity for "awesome crap" (to use his own words), so we decided we should stop.  Eden was appalled by it, and Z agreed that it was heavy on the crap and light on the awesome.  From there we stopped at Chubby Chipmunk, best chocolate in SD (Eden says best in the world), and then made our way to Spearfish Canyon Lodge, which is right in Spearfish Canyon.  That evening we hiked up to Roughlock Falls, which is gorgeous and VERY cold!

Wall Drug

Chubby Chipmunk and truffles!

The stream that comes down from Roughlock Falls.

Taking it all in!

King of the mountain!

13?!?!

Z turned 13 yesterday.  Not totally sure how that happened.  But, of course we couldn't let it happen without a celebration!

Z was very laid back and teenagerish about the whole thing, so Nathan and I did most of the planning and choosing.  We had ribs for supper (with Amah and Papa John joining us) and a s'mores buffet for dessert.  He got a drone from us, some fidget toys from Eden, and a bike helmet from Amah.

Z looks over the s'mores fixin's.

Z does nothing without that Tennessee hat!

Z got out his gift from last year (when we were in Mexico) which was a sombrero.

A fidget toy from Eden.

Of course Luie was part of the party.

Candles on a graham cracker with nutella.  You have to improvise when you don't have a cake.

Let the yummy gooiness begin.

Nathan put bacon on his.

Papa John told us this was his first s'more ever!

Z loves his marshmallows crispy.

We are very messy.