Big Sky Country

Sorry it’s been a couple of days, we’ve been out exploring.  We posted up for a few days in the chill town of Whitefish, Montana.  We enjoyed live music, a farmer’s market, hiking, and cowboy spotting.

Tiny girl big mountains

Day 1 Tuesday

We rolled into town and headed straight to our cabin on Big Mountain.  Our host recommended Whitefish’s farmer’s market and the town’s number 1 artist for 11 years running, John Dunnigan.  The whole town turns out for the market and then wanders over to Craggy Range to listen to the favorite local artist.  John was fun to listen to and gave us a CD with the little bit of cash we scrounged together.

Day 2 Wednesday

We did a warm up hike at Trail of the Cedars.  The trail is a 0.8 mile loop, with a side trail of 4 miles out and back offering incredible views of Avalanche Lake nestled in between the mountains.  This trail had a history of trees.  There were Hemlocks, Cedars, and Cottonwoods, some over 1,000 years old.

A bunch of tree huggers

We hit up Piggyback Barbeque for some more live music and got a recommendation for Highline trail!

Day 3 Thursday

Got an early start, but not quite early enough.  Luckily, we got a spot at the loop and took the shuttle up to Logan’s Pass to hop on the Highline Trail.  This trail deserves a post of its own so expect one in the near future with a full gallery!

Nomming on some leaves

Day 4 Friday

After the full day of hiking the Highline Trail, we decided to cover more ground by car!  We drove from West to East Glacier (Apgar to St. Mary’s) along Going to The Sun Road.  It took us 4 hours to cover 50 miles, as we stopped every so often to take in the views of remaining glaciers and look for wildlife.

Majestic Mountain Goat of Glacier

That drive worked up all our appetites so we made the only logical decision and stopped for ice cream.  We spent our last night in Whitefish taking in the views of Lake Mcdonald.  Before turning in we hit up Great Northern Brewery and tried some Huckleberry Beer. Fun fact: Huckleberrys are just blue berries at higher elevation (maybe).