Other experiences of note en route to Glacier include a fly fishing lesson and subsequent fishing attempts (a slippery slope, see separate post), a hot springs, an evening out in Bozeman, and a State Park.
The hot springs was unfortunately not one of those natural middle of nowhere rock pools, this was a resort busy on a holiday weekend with families and divebombing kids – still, the hot water did the trick and we left feeling refreshed.
Bozeman was a convenient place to break the journey and who knew, they had a Walmart. As I may have mentioned before, camping at Walmart provides an otherwise accessible option for staying in town. You might have to hunker down with a few other campers, trucks, and weirdos, but beggars can’t be choosers. For us, it meant an easy walk to a nearby brewery, trendy kambucha hangout, distillery, and wood-fired pizza restaurant.
The challenge came the next day when Darren, all pumped up with his new fly fishing enthusiasm, suggested I find somewhere along the way to Glacier National Park where he could fish and I could run. Believe me, google has not yet mastered this art. (Hey Siri, where can you fish and run en route from point A to point B?) Neither have I to be honest, but between us, we got lucky.
On the map, I spotted a confluence of rivers at Three Forks in Montana, which surely looked hopeful for fishing. Turned out to be Missouri Headwaters State Park (Missouri? I don’t know too much about US geography but I know it’s a way from here). Apparently, Lewis and Clark, a pair of American explorers had beaten us here, way back in American history. They led the first expedition west by following the Missouri River to here in 1805. I guess they managed to find it without google too.
Fishing and running done, tick.
Oh and certainly worthy of note on the road… our first Basecamp in the wild. We saw it in the distance, squinting as the light reflected off the silver… is it a horse trailer, is it an airstream? By the time we realized it was truly our kin, lights flashing erratically, some random waving…. it was gone.