In a few days we’ll be heading off to Montana and meeting our friends, Keith and Paula, to go explore Glacier National Park and Yellowstone National Park. Yes, I know that 96% of Yellowstone is in Wyoming and only 3% in Montana (the other 1% is in Idaho), but all of our lodging is in Montana, thus I’m calling this our “Montana Adventure”!

Dave has been to both parks, but it was many, many years ago; he and I went to Yellowstone in 2010. So, we are long overdue for a repeat visit. Keith and Paula have not been to either park.

Our itinerary goes something like this:

Day 1 – Fly to Billings, Montana – We are staying at the Home2Suites by Hilton in Billings.

Day 2 – Drive to Columbia Falls, Montana – probably via Great Falls, then to Browning and take US 2 West. This is at least a 7-hour drive with no stops. We WILL make stops! LOL! We have a house rented for 4 nights in Columbia Falls through VRBO.

Day 3 – We have a reservation for a boat tour of Lake McDonald in the afternoon. This will give us access to “Going to the Sun Road” to get there. We’ll see what we can explore in the vicinity.

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Day 4 – We haven’t made a plan yet.

Day 5 – We have a half-day tour booked through Sun Tours for experiencing “Going to the Sun Road”. We are on the waitlist for the full-day tour. We watched a video showing this route (the red squiggly road crossing the park from west to east or vice versa), and all agreed that we didn’t want to drive it ourselves! This way everyone gets to enjoy the views and leave the driving to a professional!

Day 6 – Time to head to Yellowstone. We have another VRBO reserved for 5 nights in West Yellowstone about 5 miles from the West Entrance to the park. This will be about a 6-hour drive non-stop. Again, we WILL stop! 😊

Days 7-10 – We’ll pick a different part of the park to focus on each day. Yellowstone National Park is 3,472 square miles (8,991 square kilometers, or 2,221,766 acres) in size, so there’s no way to see it all!    

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Day 11 – Drive to Red Lodge, Montana, via Beartooth Hwy – this will take us out the Northeast Entrance (or Exit in our case!) of Yellowstone National Park. Beartooth is full of switchbacks, amazing vistas, and hopefully we’ll spot some critters along the way, too! This is about a 4.5-hour drive, but other than a few overlooks and pull-outs, there are not a lot of places to stop. We have a 2-night VRBO rental in this quaint town.

Day 12 – Wander around Red Lodge. We have dinner reservations in nearby Edgar at The Edgar Bar which is well-known in the area for its steaks. Dave’s former boss gave it a glowing recommendation!

Day 13 – Drive back to Billings – we may meander over to the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument. They are currently building a new visitor center, and the park is presently only open Friday-Sunday. Luckily, this will be on a Friday. We are staying at the Home2Suites by Hilton again.

Day 14 – We all fly home and sleep in our own beds again!