Episode 47 | Gardiner, MT to Columbia Falls, MT
I mentioned there’d be a cliffhanger.
The morning after we checked into the cabin in Gardiner, I stepped outside to find deer. Not deer in the distance. Deer in the parking lot, roughly twenty-five yards away, completely unconcerned with my presence and apparently under the impression that I might have snacks. One of them walked right up to the cabin door. I had a $7,000 lens in my bag and photographed the whole thing on my cell phone from the parking lot. That about sums up wildlife photography on this trip.
I did not give her any grapes. I wasn’t sure she’d want them. She did not seem to appreciate this answer and stood there for a while making her case anyway.
The Cabin at Gardiner
Before we left I want to give this place its due, because it was genuinely great. A small cabin, clean and simple, king-size bed, little kitchen setup, a futon for a third person. Becca slept on it without complaint, which is either a testament to the futon or to her general good nature. Probably both.
Gardiner itself is worth a note too. It’s the original entrance to Yellowstone, the oldest one, and it has that character that gateway towns often lose somewhere along the way. Small, a little worn, but honest about what it is. We’d had a nice evening there, wandered around after dinner, found that elk standing in the neighborhood like she owned it. I’d stay there again before I’d stay at the Snow Lodge under active construction.
On the way out I noticed the neighbor’s property. I’m not going to say much about it because it’s not mine to say, other than that I’ve never in my life seen that many cars, that full of that many things, in one front yard. When I edit these videos later I sometimes second-guess myself about how I talk about what I see. This was one of those moments. Everybody has a story. I’m genuinely curious about his. That’s the part of this whole trip that interests me more than any geyser or mountain range.
Bozeman, Briefly
The drive north took us back through Bozeman, which is where we’d landed at the start of this whole Montana chapter. It felt like a different lifetime. Becca wanted to stop at a consignment shop, which is a reasonable request and Bozeman turned out to be exactly the right place for it. College town energy, good vintage shops, the kind of afternoon where you wander in looking for one thing and come out with three.
I did the Walmart grocery run while she did the thrift haul. We reconvened in the parking lot. Someone in an RV had their awning out and appeared to be fully settled in for the duration. I respected that.
We stopped for a picnic somewhere outside of Bozeman at a pavilion that turned out to be aggressively occupied by bees. We relocated. This is the reality of outdoor dining in the American West and I stand by the picnic model regardless.
The Drive North
From Bozeman to Glacier is a long stretch of Montana, and I’ll be honest that I wasn’t recording much of it. Some days you’re just driving and talking and watching the landscape change out the window, and that’s enough. We passed by Flathead Lake somewhere in there, which is one of the largest natural freshwater lakes west of the Mississippi and looked exactly like something you’d drive two days to see if you knew it was there. I didn’t have footage. I have the memory.
The route we took brought us in through the west side of Glacier. If I were doing it again I’d probably come in from the east, through St. Mary, and drive Going-to-the-Sun Road first thing in the morning with the light behind me. That’s the version I’d plan for. We had a reservation for the road the next day, which shaped our approach, and it worked fine. But I’ll note it for next time because there will be a next time.
The Pioneer Cabin
We arrived after dark at a place called the Pioneer Cabin near Columbia Falls, a few miles from the Glacier entrance. Three bedrooms, full kitchen, sitting area outside, a grill. Bigger than it looked in the photos, which is a pleasant surprise in the vacation rental world where the reverse is far more common.
I did a little walk around the property in the fading light. Horses somewhere down the hill. Clouds building over the ridge. The kind of quiet that settles in when you’ve been moving for days and finally stop somewhere that isn’t a hotel.
Tomorrow we had Going-to-the-Sun Road. I went to bed thinking about the light.
