The West is Great, The East Sucks
Written: Dec 03 '03 (Updated Dec 03 '03)
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Pros: The western side of the state
Cons: The eastern side of the state
The Bottom Line: I like Montana, but I don't love it. If you visit the west, you'll love it, if you visit east of Great Falls, you won't.
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| tch7's Full Review: Montana |
I've been to Montana more than any other state, but that's just because of its location, not because I like it more than any other state. The majority of this review is focused on my most recent visit to Montana, which was part of a three-week road trip that took me through a number of northwestern states; links to the other portions of the road trip can be found at the bottom of this review. I've also included some experiences from my other visits, which were more than just driving through the area.
Montana has its very nice mountainous areas, but the majority of it is dry, unfertile prairie land that makes you wish they hadn't reinstated the speed limits. Many of the towns that dot the landscape, are dumpy and just there for no real reason, but the cities are all quite nice. Great Falls is a mediocre city, it makes for a good stop for the night or to refuel, but there isn't much to do around it. Helena, the capital, is a small quaint city that is surrounded by green rolling hills, and but it strikes me as being a little less lively than Great Falls. Billings wasn't in a nice area (hot & dry), but the city was actually somewhat appealing. Bozeman, which we drove through on the way back, was nestled in a nice green valley, but on the road you didn't see a whole lot of it. Butte is another small city, but it has been many years since I last visited it and I can't recollect much about it, other than a large mining operation. If my memory serves me correct, it was somewhat of a grungy place - typical of a mining area, and I'll see if I'm right when I drive down to San Francisco in just under a month from now.
We only spent two nights in Montana, one going down and one coming back. Heading down, we went to a small town called Belt (east of Great Falls) where we found a private campground that was fairly nice and $18 for the night - it's in the AAA Tour Book. Belt is a typical small town, and therefore there was nothing to do but go for a short walk in the quiet river valley. All the smoke from the wildfires made for an absolutely amazing sunset, plus the valley cooled off nicely to make for a nice temperature for sleeping. On the way back, we stayed at the Holiday Inn Express Helena, which we had stayed at in prior visits. For about $115 a night, we had nice beds, nice private bathrooms, and air conditioning - it sure beat staying in a tent. They also provided a good complimentary breakfast buffet that consisted of donuts, muffins, coffee, orange juice, and those sorts of things. Getting into the hotel was the only con, as you have to twist around on some side roads, but other than that I highly recommend it.
Roads are generally in good condition, and traffic has never been a concern on any of the roads. Considering it is such a desolate region with a poor economy, they have done quite a good job in maintaining them.
Between Billings and Sheridan (Wyoming) is where Custer made his last stand, at the Little Bighorn Battlefield. We stopped there, to spite the scorching temperature of 46*C, and I can't say I had an enjoyable time. Although much of it had to do with there being no refuge from the heat, there wasn't much of great interest. There was a talk that occurred every hour and a half, but it wasn't to the point and dragged things on could have been said in all of 15 minutes (If you've ever watched City Confidential, you know the feeling). I couldn't understand why anybody would even bother fighting over that land, as it is so inhospitable. It was a very informative center and it presented an unbiased view of everything involved in the battle, making it a great educational stop.
On my other visits to Montana, I went in search of sapphires near Helena, and another time I paid a short visit to Glacier National Park. Mining for sapphires was actually quite a neat experience, and it was actually a profitable vacation (how often does that happen?). For about every $250 spent, we got about $800 back in the value of the sapphires. The first place we went was just outside of Helena, on a ranch that was run by a couple, and it was the most enjoyable time, as you could go and do the process start to finish, whereas other places just offered things like dirt in a can that guaranteed you'd get something out of it. I suppose most people don't see digging in dirt as a nice little vacation, but it actually turned out to be quite fun once you got into it. The second place we went was a small town called Philipsburg that maintained a western look to it. It had a large building where they appraised and cut diamonds, and were more on the jewelry side of things - but they also offered pay dirt. It was a neat town, and it had a very big candy/taffy store with candy from all over the world. I can't provide you with any names of the companies, as this was a close to 7 years back and my parents did all of the planning, with a little bit of research on the internet you'll find out all that you need. Anyways, it is a great thing for families, and our best sapphire brought us $875 - but we have yet to actually do anything with any of the sapphires.
My visit to Glacier National Park was only a day, as we just drove up to Logan Pass and did the short little walk from the visitor’s center. It was incredibly busy, everywhere, but the scenery was truly marvelous. There were numerous waterfalls right on the side of the road, mountain goats and big horn sheep at Logan’s Pass, and just a very natural feeling, to spite the thousands of people walking around at the visitors center. The information in the visitor’s center was okay for information, but some of the exhibits were bleached so badly by the sun that they couldn't be read very easily. Traffic wasn't too bad, even though there is only the one narrow road - there was a number of pull-offs and good passing areas.
Western Montana is for the most part, an attractive area. Eastern Montana isn't nice, not unless you find barren fields attractive. It's not a bad state overall, not that I'd ever want to live there, but I don't mind driving through it every now and then. As a whole, I'd recommend that you visit parts of Montana if you happen to be in the general area and have some time to spare. It's not a bad place, nor is it a great place.
If you're interested in the rest of the road trip, here are links to the other portions of it:
Montana
Wyoming
Yellowstone National Park
Grand Teton National Park
Colorado
The Vail Area
Rocky Mountain National Park
Arches National Park
Jewel Cave National Monument (South Dakota)
Recommended:
Yes
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tch7
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