Montana Day 6: More Yellowstone and We Shopped!

Today was an easy day–we drove back to West Yellowstone and wandered around the very, very tourist-centric town and shopped. We checked out several of the 7,896 souvenir and T-shirt and sweatshirt and Western wear stores (okay, maybe a slight exaggeration, but there were a LOT of stores!) West Yellowstone also has, interestingly, 40 restaurants in a town of only about 1,800 people. However, West Yellowstone gets at least 3, 375,000 visitors from all over the world every year, and I’m assuming they all want to eat. After all, we did.

We had lunch at a fun 50s-style diner called Canyon Street Grill–black-and-white checkerboard floors, red vinyl booths, 50s decor, and yummy food. And we shopped, although honestly, from the look of all the bags that others were carrying around, we didn’t buy much. I tried on cowboy hats, found a cool sweatshirt and stuff for my family, and Carol bought a T-shirt, earrings, and some other little goodies. I also found some wonderful fun tchotchkes to tuck into giveaway prize boxes for my readers. It was a good day.

On the way home, we stopped at a turnout on 191 to check out the Gallatin River–a rushing, sparkling, very shallow river that highway 191 follows as it snakes through the hills and valleys of the Gallatin Mountains foothills. Flyfishing is quite popular in this part of Montana, and we spotted several folks in waders slinging their lines.

One of the entrances to Yellowstone National Park is just a few miles south of Big Sky, so we stopped by the sign to get a picture and to check out the sage brush, which is everywhere! It smells heavenly and because there was so much of it in the fenced pastures along 191, we googled to see if cattle eat sage brush. They do, but it’s not their first choice. People can eat it too and the Indigenous people who lived here way back when used it for medicinal purposes and even made teas out of it.

We are amazed every time we go through the mountains, thinking about how blasting through them to make the roads and highways made rock formations that remind us of castles. Check it out.

Home for a break–naps and reading for pleasure and then out tonight for a truly delicious supper at Michelangelo–a wonderful Italian place down the road from us. We had good pasta dishes and dessert! Yum!

Tomorrow, we head to Ousel Falls–hold a good thought. When we asked if there were bears there, the answer was “While sightings aren’t frequent, they are a possibility, after all, the area is considered bear country.” We’ll practice raising our arms and trying to look big!

More tomorrow before we head back to our respective homes on Tuesday.

All Our Best,

Nan/Carol