Montana Girls Trip

Loved traveling to Montana with Katie and Ali! We stayed in our rental cabin in West Yellowstone. It is amazing all of the activities we completed in just 5 days!

Monday was mostly a travel day getting from Minnesota to Montana. Our flight was delayed 4 hours, but we arrived safely, picked up groceries, and headed into the mountains.

After a relaxing evening, we had a full day on Tuesday. We were in the park from 8:30 am - 10:00 pm! It was a full day with the Grand Prismatic Spring, Old Faithful, a 6 mile hike to a lake, and viewing animals. We were headed out of the park and we were stopped in a traffic jam by a herd of bison. One of which charged the biker in front of us and made them jump! Then we stopped again after seeing a bunch of people pulled over with scopes. We were able to get amazing views of 3 black wolves and 1 white alpha female wolf. We watched them for a long time and headed out to get dinner. Dinner ended up being at 10:30! 

Wednesday was a low key day. We started the morning with yoga and hot tub time! We headed into the town of West Yellowstone for some shopping for "tourist" souvenirs. We shopped till we dropped and were ready for lunch back at the cabin. We decided to spend the afternoon kayaking on Hebgen Lake. We ended with an evening hike on a trail behind the cabin. 

Thursday was another full day in Yellowstone National Park. We completed the north loop from 8:30 am to 8:00 pm. We started our day with Mammoth Hot Springs. From there, we went on a 5 mile hike...may have been lost for a bit...and loved the constantly changing scenery. After the hike, we enjoyed a lunch on a grassy patch and headed out toward Tower. We took lots of pictures of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and conquered the stairs leading to the upper and lower falls. On our way out of the park, we saw two large elk and experienced one calling for a female to come out of the woods. Couldn't have been more perfect! 

Friday we packed up to head back to Bozeman. We stopped in Big Sky...spent more money :) and completed another 6 mile hike to Lava Lake. This is probably one of my favorite hikes in Montana. The lake is stunning and surrounded by the Spanish Peaks. This is a harder hike with an ascent of 1600 feet, but it is well worth the climb. On a side note, Ben and I did this hike a few years ago with Lucy. It was nice to go back and think about a time when she was healthy and happy, but hard at the same time knowing she won't hike with us again. I miss her dearly. When we got to the hotel for the night, we relaxed with the water slide pool and hot tub. Early bed time to get up for a 5:45 am flight on Saturday. 

Awesome trip with amazing ladies! Can't wait for the next one!