Big Sky Country

From Glacier we traveled south along Flathead Lake and through the valleys of Montana to Bozeman. Well actually we didn’t make it all the way to Bozeman. Tracy had been driving for a while and it was 5pm so we decided to stop in Fairmont. Bet you can’t find Fairmont on a map. There’s nothing there as far as I can tell except the Fairmont Hot Springs, Golf resort and Spa. As it turned out we spent an extra day here getting massages, working out and enjoying the hot springs. Nice place to get away but good luck getting there.


You really come to understand why they call this Big Sky country once you see. The sky is crystal clear and just goes on forever. It is framed by the Rockies, Bitteroots, Bridgers and other huge, tall mountain ranges all far, far in the distance. You can probably see a hundred miles in every direction. Did I mention the sky is really big?

We got to Bozeman and I thought it was pretty cool. We did the tour with the real estate agent, had a few drinks in their downtown area, went hiking (they have lots of hiking trails in town), checked out the hospital and the university, etc. They have lots of views (middle of a very big valley with mountains in all directions), good music and arts scene, good restaurants and bars downtown, tons of outdoor recreation opportunities (some of the best fly fishing in the US, two ski resorts within an hour, hiking, biking and horseback riding, etc). Additionally, this is one of those sunny and dry area’s in the rain shadow of a major mountain range but the winters are still fairly long and cold. Tracy just thought it was just OK, but she really couldn’t put her finger on what about it she didn’t care for. I liked it, but no better than Coeur D’Alene or Anacortes so it probably goes off the list.



We did get a sudden hail storm while we were here which reminded us that winter is coming. Tracy went into nesting mode: bought lots of food, an extra coat, 2 extra turtlenecks, etc. I took the opportunity to catch up on some blog writing.


While here we also decided to check out Idaho Falls. It’s a lot like Bozeman but with the highest per capita concentration of high-tech (still only 15%) in the northern Rockies. We’ll probably swing by their after Yellowstone.