After leaving the beauty of Yellowstone, we decided to make Bozeman, Montana, our final stop in that leg of the trip. We wanted to cross Montana off the list (state 41!), and The Husband has a cousin in Bozeman he hadn’t seen in almost two decades.
The drive to Bozeman goes through Gardiner, Montana, where the Roosevelt Arch welcomes visitors to the north entrance of Yellowstone. From there, the drive was around an hour and a half to Bozeman, through the vast, open country, exactly how you expect Montana to look.
We only had one night in Montana, and we desperately needed to do laundry, so we stayed at a newly built Home2 Suites by Hilton. Everything was clean, the staff was great, the room was huge, and the gym and laundry were next to each other. We were able to get a workout in while doing our laundry.
Once we were settled, we headed into downtown Bozeman. It is as cute of an old western-type town as you’ll find. The storefronts have an old-timey charm to them, and there are real-life cowboys and horse-drawn carriages! Despite being on the smaller side (population around 60,000), there are two bookstores: Vargo’s Jazz City & Books and Country Bookshelf.
There’s also a random Mark Twain statue on a bench. Although Mark Twain apparently never set foot in Bozeman, the statue was placed to celebrate literature and inspire passersby.
Before heading to dinner, we stopped for a drink at the Bacchus Pub at the Baxter Hotel. This gorgeous 1929 building isn’t actually a hotel, though the website says they are converting the apartments back into a boutique hotel.
For dinner, we headed to Montana Ale Works. Also according to the internet, it is the best, most award-winning restaurant in Bozeman. We love a brewpub, since they usually have lots of options for the picky Husband and good vegetarian/pescetarian options for me.
We started with a beer flight and queso, our standard brewpub appetizer. For dinner, I was excited to find a homemade veggie burger and a kale Caesar. Few things annoy me as much as a $20 Morningstar veggie burger on a menu. The Husband had a chicken sandwich with giant homemade tater tots. The internet was right. Everything was fantastic.
The next morning, we headed to the quaint, cozy Bozeman airport. We dropped off the rental we had since Utah and settled in to wait for our flight to Seattle. We ate surprisingly good wood-fired pizza from Ross Peak Grill while enjoying the beautiful view of the mountains.
We finally boarded our flight to Seattle so we could take the train to Vancouver and get on an Alaskan cruise! It was our first time flying domestic first class since the Vomit Gyser of 2022. Thankfully, no one threw up on us, and the flight was uneventful.