After leaving Glacier, our next intended destination was Colorado. But to get there, we had a few days of driving ahead of us, so we planned a couple of quick stops along the way. Our first stop was the tiny town of White Sulphur Springs, which we chose because it was about 4 hours away, and there is a Passport America park there that had great reviews – the Conestoga Campground. We stayed for a couple of nights and enjoyed the full hook-ups and got caught up on laundry. We spent our days exploring the city on foot and taking pictures of the historic rail road cars, old rusty trucks, farm equipment, and colorful shop windows. We even caught a lovely sunset from the campground.
Our next and final stop in Montana was Red Lodge. We found a nice spot at the Basin Campground (a NFS site) and settled in for 4 nights. The trailhead for Basin Lake was in walking distance of our campground, so we did that hike one morning…or at least we did part of it. The trail was nice and shaded and ran right alongside a creek with waterfalls. But after about a mile, you had to cross the creek. It had rained heavily the day before, and the water was deep and was flowing pretty fast. We didn’t feel like trying to get across with all the dogs, so we turned around.
A couple of days later we tried another trail – the West Fork Rock Creek Trail. This is an easy, meandering trail, but it goes through an area of forest that was burned by fire a few years ago. The upside was that you could see the mountains in the distance, the downside was that we were surrounded by dead trees.
I usually like to take sweeping landscape shots when we hike, but that wasn’t going to happen on this trail. So I focused instead on the wildflowers. Shorty wanted to get in on the action too.
And on our last day, we drove the Bear Tooth Highway. We drove the other side of the highway when we were in Yellowstone, and had to turn around at the top because of a snow storm. We didn’t get any snow this time, but it was a cloudy, overcast day. But it was still some spectacular scenery!
And with that, we bid adieu to Montana. All in all we spent six wonderful weeks there, and really fell in love with it. It was the first time either of us had visited Montana, but it will certainly not be the last!
Nealys on Wheels 
Looks awesome! Montana is our next destination next summer for sure. We are in northern Cali having a blast as well.
So are you going to RV again next summer as well?! We are planning on it again also, but we’re planning to do the northeast. Can’t wait to hear about Cali!
Isn’t it fun discovering all these little towns! We are on Rte 2 in MT heading to Glacier and having a great time in each little town.
We love Red Lodge and The Bear Tooth!! We have driven it several times and each time we were on a motorcycle and it was mid June. One year the road had just opened! The lakes are always frozen and there are huge cut snow banks. One year the ski slope was open and the rope tow was going. Did you see the rope tow? It is our favorite road in the country. Sorry it was so grey for you but, as you said, it was still spectacular scenery:)
Looking forward to your Colorado posts! We leave in the morning for East Glacier. I am so excited to get back in the mountains:)
Yes, we LOVE the small towns – much more than the big cities. Red Lodge was awesome. We did see that rope tow! But it wasn’t running. And yes we were simultaneously posting on each other blogs I think – too funny! Can’t wait to read your Glacier posts!
Love the photo of Shorty checking out the flowers. Bear Tooth Hwy looks like my kind of road – stunning scenery 🙂
He stuck his head in the shot right as I clicked the shutter – but I thought it was so funny I kept it! Bear Tooth Highway is pretty impressive – I wish I’d brought my wide angle lens that day!
yep we felt the same way about Montana…
Yes, Montana was a real treat. Sorry we just missed you – maybe we’ll catch up with you somewhere else along the way.
Way to photobomb the picture Shorty. As always, great photos Jen.
Shorty is such a ham! Always has to be the center of attention… Miss you two and can’t wait to meet back up in Grayton!
Such beautiful photos! We absolutely fell in love with Montana when we spent our two years in Yellowstone. There are some great hikes down off of the Beartooth Highway and we loved the little town of Red Lodge. So glad you got to spend so much time there.
We had no idea we’d end up staying there for 6 weeks, but we just really loved it!
One of our favorite states so far!
Beautiful shots! Montana is a gorgeous state and I believe we are going to spend a little time there next summer. Thanks for the preview! Love those alpine shots along Beer Tooth Hwy.
We’ll definitely be back there ourselves, but it might be 2016 as I think we are doing the northeast next summer. I heard that you might be meeting up with Clark & Lynn – I hope you get to meet them! They are awesome and I think you’d all have a lot of fun together.
Glacier is one of my all time favorite parks. I have vicariously enjoyed your Montana time.
Thanks! Glacier is definitely now one of our favorites too.
Some great photo ops in White Sulphur Springs, love all that color and texture.
Thank you! I told Deas I could have stayed in that little for days just walking around taking pictures!