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(Sorry. Long) Before you die... - Redrum - 08-29-2014

You all owe it to yourselves to see Montana.  What a place.  My kid works as prof in Bozeman and I can't recall a better week's vacation since waaaaaaaaaay back in time when I & friends headed to Greece from Stanford in Germany.  Yes, Yellowstone is awash in late summer tourists.  Maybe it's always awash in tourists.  But here's the thing:  it is one place in the U.S. that rises above all the people and crowds.  Literally and figuratively.  God bless the politicians of 1872 who had the ability to see the value and create what had never been created before: a national park.    And screw the radical free marketeers who think government ruins everything.  Just look at West Yellowstone or Gardiner right outside the park entrances to see The Road Not Taken.  The fun part:  park rangers spend most of their time doing three things: 1) telling tourists not to be idiots and go exploring thermal pools & vents on their own.  2) Telling tourists not to be idiots and try to get selfies with elk and bison.  3) Telling campers not to be idiots and sleep in tents near campgrounds where the bears  be.ars have no fear.

But the rest of Montana,  at least around Bozeman is doing just fine as a free-market counter-argument.  Ringed by mountain ranges, it has views you don't see anywhere else.  Thriving wheat and livestock industry stretching up on the mountainsides as far as cattle can stand.  It's a working landscape, not a decorated landscape.  August (!) snow on the peaks.  The beauty of green and gold fields in high summer.  Bozeman a small town (yeah, but it's got a university) that actually has a functioning downtown and main street.  Lots of art galleries and tourist shops, but also lots of functioning everyday businesses and government/ public offices that are convenient and successful.  Can't recall seeing a city that old and that size that survived the coming of malls and shopping centers, but struck a balance and kept downtown alive and populated.  Shady streets.  VERY bike friendly/walking friendly.  Downside: everyone is really honest about the winters.  Each has his/her own favorite -20 deg. anecdote.  They do not sugar-coat it in the name of promoting immigration or tourism.

And they have women's roller derby as a genuine amateur sport.  I  remember it as hokey TV faux sport,  but it lives and thrives in small (and some big) towns in America as a genuine competitive local sport. But you have to look for it, and then you see it's all over.  Laugh if you will, but there in the Agricultural Exhibit building of the county fairgrounds they drew more than a thousand people-- families, teens, students, hipsters, male groupies-- for a match with another Montana city.  Just a hoot and the women who compete ( 20 and 30-somethings) take it very seriously.  The Redrumette competes and contributes to the cachet in radio and print promotion as they note that even PhDs are on the team.    The practice we took in was eye opening.  Like football practice for guys, but less standing around.  3-hours of technique training and repetition with hard hitting.  And the fun part is every player adopts a nom-de-guerre, which is invariably bad-ass and from then on they refer to each other by that name around town.  So we ran into Rogue at the Co-OP market and  Lady Anvil  at the campus brewery.  Lady Anvil has the physique of a Russian javelin thrower, is a sweet as the day is long, and is a welding, grinding, brazing by-God sculptor in metal.

Oh.  Montana State in Bozeman is in the Big Sky conference along w/ U.C. Da vis.  Anyone will tell you they fully expect to MSU to grind UC Davis'  sorry butts into peanut butter.  We now have a metric of common foe.  Nothing less than 56-0 tomorrow.

Re: (Sorry. Long) Before you die... - SUBuddha - 08-29-2014

Redrum-

I concur wholeheartedly. I worked freeway construction to pay for Stanford. One summer I got to work the stretch of I-90 through Missoula. That is just beautiful land, I always keep an eye out for jobs at the University of Montana or Montana State. 

Re: (Sorry. Long) Before you die... - terry - 08-29-2014

Redrum, thanks for posting. Montana is on my list of future travel destinations. Based on your post, I think I'll bump it up a few notches. . . .

Re: (Sorry. Long) Before you die... - 82lsju - 08-29-2014

Glacier National Park should be on your list for any Montana visit.  We did a "circuit" of the park staying in the park at the Many Glacier Lodge as well as the Prince of Wales Lodge in neighboring Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada

Re: (Sorry. Long) Before you die... - Hulk01 - 08-29-2014

Absolutely.  Bounced around there, played some nice golf not far from Glacier, which is lovely. 

If I were better at posting photos, I would hard sell my native north Oregon Coast at this point.  Stephanie and i just returned, abd she and her two flatlander friends oohed and ahhed over the view from the turnouts on Neah-Kah-Nie Mountain, raved about the Short Sands--both the walk to the beach and the beach and cove itself--and stopped and stared at least four times on the walk to Indian Beach (the setting, for good reason, for the surf scenes in Point Break.)  If there are three more spectacular oceans and beaches side-by-side than Indian, Short Sands, and Manzanita, I haven't seen them.  And I've made the 17 Mile Drive, the Amalfi Coast, and Cape Town to the Cape of Good Hope. 

But for peacefulness, mountain air, and the glory that is Big Sky, yes: Montana gets my vote, Redrum.

Re: (Sorry. Long) Before you die... - CowboyIndian - 08-29-2014

No, no, no! Don't go to Montana. It is hell on earth. You will be eaten by grizzlies if you aren't gored by a bison first. Stay away!

First guy I worked for... - Mick - 08-29-2014

...used to go on fishing trips to Montana once a year.  It was the only meeting commitment he would never reschedule.  Always went with his best buddy.

About a month ago, I was on a plane in Minneapolis.  As I was deplaning, one of the passengers was on the phone to his missus.  He was catching a connecting flight to Montana.  It was crystal clear that he loved Montana and couldn't wait to get away from Minnesota (and Michigan, where the flight originated).

I've never been there myself.  I wonder if it would be nice to retire there?

Re: (Sorry. Long) Before you die... - Rally - 08-29-2014

When the children were in middle school we took a motorhome trip, San Diego to Yellowstone and back (26 footer.). Bryce and Zion NPs on the way, spent a week in Yellowstone, moving camp twice, then Glacier, visited small towns whose names I no longer remember (although I dropped my business card in the bowl at one quaint lunch spot and learned upon our return home I had won lunch for two.)  broke down near Las Vegas on the way home so had to take a hotel room and took the kids to the Bill Cosby show; Bill had all the kids in the audience come on stage and sit down for the best view, he said.  Magical show.  That was over 30 years ago but they still bring it up, the family inside jokes, singing Willie Nelson's On The Road Again a million times, and what they saw and experienced in Yellowstone.  At age 10 our daughter told us early one morning she needed to whisper because she felt like she was in church.  Oddly we never made it to Yosemite in that motorhome, but that was the best family trip we ever had.  Our daughter rented a motorhome last summer and duplicated the trip with her family.

If you have children at home, do this.  If it is too late, encourage your children to take their's .    Incomparable.

For what it's worth - Redrum - 08-29-2014

Mauled Whiskey  aka the Redrumette  has done Glacier and plans to go back,  so that is a substitute endorsement for mine...which I can't give because I haven't been there, yet.

Re: For what it's worth - Rally - 08-29-2014

(08-29-2014, 03:28 PM)Redrum link Wrote:Mauled Whiskey  aka the Redrumette  has done Glacier and plans to go back,  so that is a substitute endorsement for mine...which I can't give because I haven't been there, yet.

Go.  Life is short.

Re: (Sorry. Long) Before you die... - jacketree - 08-29-2014

I was a few days away from being born at Yellowtail Dam on the Bighorn River, but they made it back down to boring Denver in the nick of time.  Yes everyone should absolutely visit Montana and not just Glacier, spectacular as it is.  (Everyone should drive through Broadus, MT once in their life.)  But if you are going to Glacier/Waterton make sure you ride the boat south out of Canada back into Montana and hike to Crypt Lake.  Just don't miss the last boat back, or you will be Grizzly hours d'oeuvres.

[Image: 03_Crypt_Lake.jpg]

I have a long, personal relationship with Montana. My dad graduated from Billings HS before attending Montana State, Georgia Tech, and MIT; and my grandparents lived on Sunnyview Lane until my grandmother died and my grandfather moved into an assisted facility, which was also in Billings.  Any chance of retiring there (with Mrs. Jacketree anyway) died at my grandfathers funeral, when the temperature was 22 degrees Farenheit below zero without considering wind chill.  I wore a suit and went sans wool cap out of respect.

A number of major life milestones occurred in Big Sky Country.

1. First Christmas (Billings)
2. First airplane trip by myself (Age 7. Denver-Casper-Billings. Almost got off the plane by mistake in Casper.)
3. First trip to one of Dad's dam sites (Hungry Horse)
4. First time behind the wheel of a car (Age 14. A stretch of Highway 310 in a baby blue 1974 Buick LeSabre.)
5. First best job ever (Yellowstone NP. Stationed at Lake Yellowstone, but plenty of trips north because....)
6. First lost virginity (In Bozeman to a lovely young woman from MSU. Wait, can you lose that twice?)
7. First realization of not being ready for marriage. (In Belt, MT just south of Great Falls. Same lovely young woman.)

I am convinced that the absolute best road trip on Planet Earth is to or from Billings through Red Lodge to Tower Junction in Yellowstone over the Beartooth Highway.  Once made the trek with my mother and siblings through a driving hail storm.  Even then the skies would clear and we'd see this out the window:

[Image: 0808171456121sunset-beartooth-highway.jpg]

Thanks for the post Redrum! Redrumette is a prof in Bozeman?  Sweet!


Re: (Sorry. Long) Before you die... - 81alum - 08-29-2014

I love Montana...Glacier in particular.  But I think I like the Canadian Rockies to the north even better...Banff, Lake Louise, Jasper.  Oh, but I also love the North Cascades, Mt. Rainier, Oregon Coast, and Sierra Nevada.  And Idaho.  The Sawtooths.  But I would not discount the California coast, either--especially from Asilomar to Big Sur.  In fact, the North American west is absolutely filled with gorgeous places and I will never grow tired of seeing them.  Every one of them is the most beautiful place on earth when I am there.

Re: (Sorry. Long) Before you die... - burger - 08-29-2014

(08-29-2014, 02:59 PM)CowboyIndian link Wrote:No, no, no! Don't go to Montana. It is hell on earth. You will be eaten by grizzlies if you aren't gored by a bison first. Stay away!

Yes, this.  And since I'm moving to Missoula in three weeks, I have a vested interest in keeping all you tourists out!

Re: (Sorry. Long) Before you die... - yvonne - 08-29-2014

I have a virtual niece who's at Montana State. What department is Redrumette in?

Redrumette @ MSU - Redrum - 08-29-2014

Neuroscience graduate research lab.  Can give more details if you want them.  She's in for 2-year deal then...who knows?  She spent a long time @ Stanford and longs to see the world. Lots and lots of it.