North Yellowstone

Published by

Brynn

on

May 13, 2024

We headed west from South Dakota, across Wyoming and Montana to our ranch house in the land of the Duttons. We rented a super cute house in Livingston Montana, just outside Paradise Valley and the North entrance to Yellowstone National Park. The west part of the park doesn’t open until the third Friday in April. They don’t plow it through the winter so that snowmobiles can use the park.

It was so nice to sit still for a while. We have been moving pretty frequently for the past month, so getting to stay put for 6 days was a real luxury. The weather was also amazing while we were in Montana – above 20 and sunny almost the whole time.

We spent some time just enjoying our house and the town. We had a beautiful view of the mountains, a good sized yard for both the dog and the kids, and so many bunnies running around. The kids had a great time trying to catch some. There was a great park down by the river that we were able to take advantage of, and of course, some really great beers at a local brewery.

We eventually headed through Paradise Valley into the park, and it lived up to expectations. Paradise Valley was absolutely stunning. Huge mountains, rolling grass fields, sparkling rivers. We now totally understand why the Duttons are killing everyone trying to take it over 😉

After we made it into the park, the first stop were the hot springs, and I assume how the park got its name.There were these great boardwalks that allowed us to walk all around the hot springs and stop at the different pools. The rocks were bright yellow with all kinds of colours running through them. It was such a gorgeous day that we were all disappointed we hadn’t taken advantage of the shorts weather – despite there still being snow on the boiling ground, the sunshine and temperatures were perfect.

After the hot springs walk we drive through the northern part of the park. We stopped a few times, sometimes without choice, to watch the bison, elk, a wolf! And in the end we got to watch two bears playing in the snow. It made for an absolutely magical day.

Our last stop in Montana was Bozeman. It was only a half hour drive from where we were staying and we had read good things about the town. We headed in to town where we found a brewery overlooking a lake. They opened the whole back yard to let people sit out on picnic blankets with their brews. The kids played some games, Jacob and I enjoyed the sun. After the beer we headed into the downtown where we found another spot to stop and have a drink before heading for dinner and back home.