Travel broadens one’s horizons (it also shrinks one’s wallet, but that is a discussion for another day). During the pandemic years, my travel was limited to car trips. However, broad acceptance of the Covid vaccine over the last two years encouraged me to return to air travel recently, though to a definitely “un-touristy” destination: Billings, Montana.
Why Billings? Family, of course. My older sister moved there a few years back and I had never visited. A quick five-day trip seemed in order.
Though served by at least three airlines, Billings is not a major destination. Getting there requires a connecting flight from Seattle, Denver or Salt Lake City and a major investment in time.
The first surprise of the trip came before I got to San Francisco International Airport. Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) has been disparaged much in the news lately, but BART to (and from) the airport was great; a clean, relatively new train, plenty of room, fast and cheap.
There have been plenty of travel horror stories this summer, but my flights weren’t among them. While not precisely on time, they were close enough to allow lunch in the Seattle-Tacoma Airport before lining up to catch the connecting flights. All four planes were full, but both my luggage and I made the trips both ways without incident.
A few words about Billings. It is situated along the Yellowstone River between two bluffs (except for one neighborhood atop the northern bluff). Like much of Montana, Billings is growing, with new housing developments, new business parks and new malls being developed in every direction (though primarily to the west).
Billings has one very odd feature: ditches in random locations throughout town. Apparently built for irrigation at the beginning of the 20th century, they stayed even as Billings grew around them. They remain today; flanked by backyards, crossed by city streets and occasionally meandering into parks. Though southern Montana had a relatively dry winter, they were full of water in early September.
With more than 100,000 residents, Billings is the most populous city in Montana. Nevertheless, it is a mix of big city and not-so-big city. On the big city side, there are the requisite museums, colleges, a zoo, a hospital and a concert hall. There also is Scheels, a huge outdoors/housewares store that sports a walk-through indoor aquarium and an indoor Ferris wheel. At the opposite end of the spectrum, the ticket counters at the airport close when no flights are pending and the Alaska Air ticket agent also doubles as the gate agent when there is a departing flight.
My three full days in Montana (and Wyoming) proved to be a quick tour of the state’s southern reaches. We visited Pompey’s Pillar, east of Billings, where William Clark scratched his name into the sandstone on the return leg of Lewis and Clark’s Journey of Discovery. We walked downtown Billings. We drove south and west on Highway 212 into Yellowstone National Park to see Bison, geysers and hot springs. We spent a night at Chico Hot Springs, a 100-year-old resort with a fine restaurant, rustic cabins (featuring the second surprise of the trip: a glow-in-the-dark toilet seat) and a great pool – fed by the natural hot springs - for soaking. And we did a driving tour of quaint downtown Livingston, where a surprisingly large number of nationally known authors live.
A few observations regarding Montana from my California perspective.
Montana is called Big Sky Country for good reason. The views are expansive in every direction in the southern portion of the state and I imagine them to be equally expansive in northern locations like Whitefish, Missoula, Helena and Glacier National Park. Sadly, the views in rural areas often are marred by someone’s house or cabin. Even sadder, those who own those houses and cabins probably only live in them six months of the year; fleeing to warmer climes like Mexico or Hawaii as soon as Montana’s cold, snowy winter arrives.
The number of distinctive license plates on Montana cars is ridiculous. It is as if every Montana car had a different specialty license plate. Actually, that isn’t far from the truth; there are approximately 266(!) specialty license plates available in Montana. Apparently any organization can petition for a license design of its own and many have.
Religion is big in Montana. Every Christian and Mormon domination is represented. There are churches everywhere, from huge mega-churches that look like shopping centers to tiny store front houses of worship that maybe hold 20 people.
Casinos also are big in Montana. These aren’t the corporate casinos of Nevada or even the Indian casinos of California; they are altogether smaller and far less glitzy. They also are everywhere, and I mean everywhere. On my travels, I passed a small strip mall with four storefronts, and two of them were casinos. Bizarre.
Visitors to Yellowstone National Park sometimes behave like idiots. Despite several news stories every year, details on the dangers in material every visitor receives on entering the park and abundant signage, people still do dumb things. Like leaving their cars to get “up close and personal” with bison. Bison are wild animals so big and strong they can flip a car on its side. Walking anywhere near them is tempting fate. Or getting off the boardwalks to look at thermal features. The ground around those features is fragile, the soil can collapse under a person’s weight, and they are called hot springs for a reason.
Highway 212 into Yellowstone National Park is a singular experience. After leaving the town of Red Lodge, elevation 5,588 feet, the road climbs a seemingly endless series of switchbacks before topping out at Beartooth Pass, elevation 10,947 feet. There is no shoulder and few turnouts. Even though the road only is open from late spring to early autumn, a ski lift drops down the slope from the very top of the pass, to enable people to enjoy summer skiing.
Yes, it was a fun trip; an opportunity to reconnect with family, and to see a different landscape and experience a different – though not too different – culture. I think my visit touched on only a few of the things to see and experience in Montana. A longer visit may well be in my future.
Be First to Comment