Page 21 - Vacation Country Travel Guide

Yellowstone National Park’s Grand Prismatic Spring Rocky Mountain peoples, along with its changing
exhibits from around the world, the Martin Children’s
Discovery Center and the Taylor Planetarium. The
Museum’s Living History Farm is an historically
accurate working homestead, where costumed
interpreters provide a rich understanding of life on
a late-1800s Montana homestead through visitor
interaction, daily activities and ongoing programs.
The Museum of the Rockies is located at Kagy Blvd
and South Third. Call 406-994-DINO or visit the
website at www.museumoftherockies.org.
Festivals in Bozeman include the Gallatin County
Fair in July, the Sweet Pea Festival in August and
the Wild West Winterfest in February. Museums
include the Gallatin County Pioneer Museum and the
American Computer Museum.
Montana Grizzly Encounter is a rescue and
education sanctuary founded in 2004 to provide a
spacious and natural home for rescued grizzlies and
to offer the public a place to come and learn about
grizzly bears as they watch the majestic animals up
close in a beautiful mountain setting. This is the
loving home to celebrity bear “Brutus”.
Billings
Location: On I-90 and I-94; 125 miles to
Yellowstone Park, 225 miles to Butte, 220 miles
to Great Falls. Visitor Information: Billings
Chamber of Commerce, 815 27th Street South,
Billings 59101; Phone: (406) 252-4016 or (800)
735-2635; Email: info@billingschamber.com
Website: www.billingscvb.visitmt.com.
Located in the Yellowstone River Valley, Billings
is Montana’s most populated city with well over
foot, nondenominational statue of “Our Lady of Bozeman 100,000 residents. Since the town’s history began in
1877, Billings has steadily become a major center for
the Rockies.” Butte’s shopping district is home to Location: On I-90; 82 miles east of Butte, 142 culture and commerce.
fascinating specialty and antique stores, acclaimed art miles west of Billings, 90 miles north of West Surrounded by six of Montana’s most spectacular
galleries and museums and several of Montana’s best Yellowstone. Population: 30,750. Visitor mountain ranges and cut through by America’s longest
restaurants. Information: Bozeman Chamber of Commerce, free flowing river, Billings lies an hour away from
2000 Commerce Way Bozeman, MT 59715; the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument,
SPECIAL EVENTS: Phone: (800) 228-4224; Email: info@ commemorating the moment when the exhausted 7
th
Chinese New Year - Mai Wah Society parade led by bozemanchamber.com; Website: www. Calvary collided with Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and
ceremonial dragon donated by the people of Taipei. bozemanchamber.com over 3000 encamped and angry warriors.
St. Urho’s Day - March 16 The breathtaking sandstone rimrocks looming over
St. Patrick’s Day - March 17 Bozeman is one of the most diverse and beautiful the town are traversed by Black Otter Trail, named
Butte Freedom Festival - July 1-4 small towns in the Rocky Mountain West, blessed after a Crow chief who was buried there after his
Montana Folk Festival - July with an eclectic mix of ranchers, artists, professors, death at the hands of a Sioux war party. At the east
Evel Knievel Days - fourth weekend in July ski enthusiasts and entrepreneurs drawn here by world end of Black Otter Trail, Sacrifice Cliff marks the
An Ri Ra Irish Festival - second weekend in August class recreation, Montana State University and a slice site of a Crow village where a returning young war
Helena of old fashioned Americana. The town’s spectacular party found the population decimated by smallpox.
mountain setting makes it a popular ski destination
Warriors blindfolded their ponies and rode them over
Location: On I-15, halfway between Glacier area and movie film location. the cliff to appease the gods and halt the epidemic.
National Park and Yellowstone, about 180 Museum of the Rockies (MOR) at MSU showcases Before the white man, the Crow or the buffalo, the
miles each way. Population: 28,000. Visitor a world renowned natural history collection with western Paleo-Indian hunted woolly mammoth and
Information: Helena Tourism Alliance, 105 one of the finest and most extensive dinosaur fossil documented the hunt with cave paintings over 4,500
Reeders Alley, 59601; Phone: (406) 449-2107; collections in the US. Named “Montana’s most years ago, 7 miles southeast of Billings at Pictograph
Website: www.helenamt.com entertaining museum” by Lonely Planet, MOR is Cave State Park.
perhaps best known for its paleontology program The drive southwest from Billings to Yellowstone
From its beginnings in 1864 as a gold camp, led by the scientific advisor on all the Jurassic Park Park over Beartooth Pass has been described as
Helena became the state capital and one of the richest movies, Dr. Jack Horner. A permanent exhibit of “The the most beautiful in the country. The impressive
cities in the US. By 1888, Helena was home to about Tyrant Kings” places MOR among only a handful of sandstone formation of Pompey’s Pillar lies 45
50 millionaires, more per capita than any city in museums in the world to display a fossilized T. rex minutes east of Billings, where the only physical
the world. About $3.6 billion (in today’s dollars) of skeleton. One of the most spectacular and complete evidence left by the Lewis and Clark Expedition on
gold was taken from Last Chance Gulch over a 20- specimens ever unearthed, Montana’s T. rex stands 12 its entire route can be found: Clark’s signature and
year period. This large concentration of wealth was feet tall and 40 feet long. The exhibit also displays 1806 date carved into the base of the rock.
the basis for developing the city’s fine Victorian skulls that show the growth of T. rex, from juvenile Billings offers a nearly endless array of recreational
neighborhoods and ambitious architecture, as well specimens to the largest ever discovered. and multi-cultural opportunities, with something
as a thriving red light district that didn’t die out until In 2016, MOR was the only venue west of the to suit every interest. Try a few of the nearby Blue
1973. Mississippi to host an important exhibition of artifacts Ribbon sport fishing streams or check out the full
The city has a wealth of museums and historic uncovered from wealthy villas buried beneath the slate at the Theater for the Performing Arts. Spend
neighborhoods to explore, a cathedral, botanical eruption of Vesuvius in 79AD. The Museum is a delightful afternoon at Zoo Montana or visit the
gardens and the lovely Gates of the Mountains area also recognized for its permanent regional history impressive exhibitions of major Montana artists at the
of the Missouri River. exhibits, including Native American cultures and Yellowstone Art Museum.

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