Rocky Mountain towns

Our ten-day northern journey took us to a number of neat little towns. Some of the funkiest I unfortunately didn't get pictures of. Like Big Timber, Montana (pop. 1,641) where we had lunch and got to see Van Persie's amazing goal vs. Spain. Or Polebridge, Montana (pop. 88) where they sell wonderful pastries at the Mercantile.

We didn't even get pictures of Billings, Montana (pop. 104, 170), the reason for the whole trip, since that's where our nephew got married. But I can show you this handsome photo of our family at the reception:

I was better about taking photos at most of the other points on our travel map. Starting with our first night, in Livingston, Montana, (pop. 7,044) on the Yellowstone River and at the head of the gorgeous Paradise Valley. Interestingly, it used to be the official gateway to Yellowstone National Park in its (the Park's) early years.

Yellowstone River in Sacagawea City Park, Livingston, MT

A more popular gateway town nowadays, though, is Gardiner, Montana (pop. 875), also on the Yellowstone and at the other end of that valley. We spent two nights here, in the surprisingly affordable (for a town 2 miles from the only year-round entrance to the Park) Yellowstone River Inn.

Yellowstone River in Gardiner, MT, from behind our motel

Here's another shot of the river in Gardiner, looking downstream this time, at the Highway 89 bridge. We got very intimate with this stretch of the river on our half-day raft excursion. I'll tell you more about that when I focus on all the wonderful rivers we saw on the trip, in a later post (or posts!).

After our fabulous days in Yellowstone, we headed west to Idaho, where we spent the night in Ashton (pop. 1,127; no pictures, but sleeping in a new state—checked off!). The state's tourist bureau has a very helpful website for planning scenic drives, and I had done a lot of research here pre-trip. Considering we didn't have time to get to some of the more famous areas in the west and northern parts of the state, the Teton Scenic Byway seemed like a no-brainer choice. 

We opted to see the famously spectacular mountains from the back side, in Idaho, but the weather didn't cooperate with these best-laid plans. Clouds obscured the peaks pretty much completely, but the Byway was still a pleasant drive. 

For one thing, we went through the resort town of Driggs, Idaho (pop. 1,660), where we saw the handsome historic buildings and eye-catching bison sculpture you see on the right.

And although the Idaho scenery wasn't Teton-class, it was still very nice. The state provides a fine scenic rest area that gives you great views of another famous river, the Snake.

Snake River from rest area on Highway 26

We followed the Snake into Idaho Falls, Idaho (pop. 56,813), which seemed like a metropolis after our days in the Park. And it did offer some big-city amenities, like more-than-passable Ida-Mex at Jalisco's, and some cool public art...

art along the Falls

Henry resting on an arty seat

Of course Idaho Falls has a falls, and a very impressive one, a wide cascade that you can't capture in one photo, at least not with my widest angle...

Here's a close-up of a section of these very attractive falls...

For our next night, we were back in Montana, and landed in what became one of our favorite towns of the trip: Butte (pop. 33,854). Where I more than made up for my lack of other town photos by taking a lot!

To be sure, there's a lot to see here. Their downtown (which they call Uptown, since it's at a higher elevation than the rest of the city) is a treasure-house of fantastic vintage buildings, from Butte's past as a mining hub.

It's always so gratifying to see a city preserve these architectural gems (like our adopted home town of Salida, CO, has done).

One of the coolest manifestations of their conservation mindset is the array of old building-wall-ads that have been preserved (click on the image to see it bigger):

It was easy for us to see all this great architecture, since we spent the night downtown. In the elegant Hotel Finlen (built 1923), which is part condos and part hotel...

For its prime location, the price was very reasonable (although our room was tiny and reminded me somewhat of the boutique hotel I stayed at in San Francisco last year). And such elegance!

lobby of Hotel Finlen, Butte, MT

We were able to walk to a fun sports bar for dinner, since Butte not only saves their old buildings, but puts them to good use. The bar was in an old bank, and Henry got a great shot of the vault while we were waiting for our food...

Doing double-duty, there's even a great breakfast place in the basement, where we fortified ourselves the next morning.

We needed fortification, since Butte is not just urban amenities. It's also set in a gorgeous location, with snow-capped peaks on three sides. We were hoping there was a good hike near the town (since we had a plane to meet a two-hour drive away).

And Butte hit the spot here as well. The photo above of the gorgeous Montana sky and the great view of the city was taken from the Maud S Canyon Trail, recommended by a few locals. (We saw the Mountain Bluebird on the left at the start of the trail, too.)

Since the interstate intersection at Butte is not the easiest to navigate (as we found out after our hike!) I was a little concerned about finding the trailhead. But it was actually in GoogleMaps and Hortense (my phone's navigation program) took us right to it.

It was a lovely hike, with not only great views of the town, but also the surrounding mountains...

Since the area was having a wet spring/early summer, everything was nice and green, although unfortunately it looks like they are dealing with pine beetles up here, too.

It was not an easy trail, but that was good. We needed to stretch our legs after the driving-intensive last few days...

Although I don't know when we'll make it back this way, I think Butte is a town we might want to visit again. For one thing, we didn't go look in probably their biggest tourist attraction, the "Pit," a simply gi-normous former copper mine right on the edge of town...

The Pit from the Maud S Canyon Trail overlook

Somehow, when something that ugly and gross gets that big...well, it becomes something else altogether, something worth seeing. At least for a tourist. 

---

Butte was only our second-favorite Montana town, though. The prize goes to the city that was the hub of our great vacation. I'll tell you all about that next time.

Preview of coming attractions

I am planning on making a lot of blogging hay out of my current fabulous trip west.

Here's a few photos to whet your appetite...and mine!