Utah, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado (July 2025) / Blog

Our trip to Denver via Montana was fantastic. It was a great big three-week trip that took us north from Flagstaff, through Utah, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Colorado before returning home. We had an amazing time with new friends and family and didn't spend nearly enough time in most places. Rather than drag you through the trip day by day I'm going to divide the pictures into sections. The sections are: Animals, Art, Buildings, Camps, People, Mango (the grandson), Scenic and Signs so skip ahead if you want. There are captions and an occasional story in there but mostly, cool photos. Enjoy.

Animals

Our first real contact with animals came on the Bitterroot River. My old soccer buddy from WAY back, Raquel, Ellen and I took floated on our paddle boards during our one full day in Missoula. It was a beautiful, calm river and I was able to pull out my long lens and have at it. What you don't see here in pictures are the American White Pelicans, deer, cliff sparrows flying out of their nests burrowed into the river bank and a bald eagle we also saw.

Our next big experience with animals came at our friend's ranch land in Livingston, MT 25 minutes from Bozeman. The deer above, all the way down to the Magpie on the fence, were at or near her ranch. There were several fawns that were still nursing, horses on her brother's property...

many Eastern Kingbirds,

a destructive but cute marmot,

several bunnies and...

lots of Magpies. I had no idea how much blue was in their wings.

On to Billings. This handsome bull was on some family ranch land in Gillette, WY that Ellen and her family own. We did a day trip to check out the oil rig sights and future sights.

We found this marmot hanging out below a wooden walkway at Pompeys Pillar National Monument near Billings. It's a place where they found Clark's (of Lewis and Clark fame) etching from 1806 on his way through the area.

The pelicans to the left were seen on our paddle board float down the Yellowstone River. Such beautiful country.

Kind of a blurry picture but these kids kept catching snakes in the North Platte River near Saratoga, WY. After the picture we left.

This little chipmunk and the mountain goats above are all the animals we saw in the fog along the Beartooth Scenic Highway from Red Lodge to Thermopolis, WY. We were hoping for a grizzly but no such luck.

Art

Lots of art on this trip and this isn't even half of it.

Our afternoon/evening in downtown Missoula was lots of fun There were great murals, good restaurants, and we found an old carrousel that Ellen had to try. It was going really fast so I opted out. I barf easy.

We walked to downtown Bozeman after our bike ride. They also have great murals.

This shelf of bicycles is part of Glennis' and Kelly's downstairs bathroom decor. All things bicycle. We loved it

In Livingston on the 4th of July was an Art Fair we stumbled upon. Here are two of my favorite artists. Above, this gal is scratching away (you can see the exacto knife she's using) the overlying black paint to reveal the ceramic underneath. I was dumbfounded at the detail. She then uses watercolor to color the image so it is transparent. Such talent.

Then, this guy collects random fabrics from people and makes them into shorts and skirts. What a great use of throw away clothes and people wearing them say they are SO comfy!!

We stopped in Big Timber on our way to Billings because, well, we could. The guitar is part of a much larger mural on a wall and was too hard to capture so I went for detail.

Turns out the sunglasses above was done by a mural artist who is dating Ellen's nephew in Billings!

Some ruffians walking through a neighbor's yard in Billings.

Two ends of the same mural. Same artist as the sunglasses above who is the girlfriend of Ellen's nephew. She's quite talented.

Ya can't pass up an opportunity to pose with Abe! This was at a Scheels sporting goods store in Billings. The inside of the store had a full size ferris wheel, lots of taxidermied animals, an aquarium and every sporting good you could need.

Old books on a shelf in the old family homestead ranch house outside of Gillette, WY.

Found at the YAM...Yellowstone Art Museum.

Boots waiting to go downstairs. Thanks for leaving them out Kara!

A box of buttons in a thrift store in Riverton, WY.

A copy of a Remington on an outside wall in the town of Riverton, WY.

Laramie has a great mural project going and I found these few downtown while Ellen was getting coffee.

More from the Laramie Mural Project. They like their fish!

The woman to the left was one of four paintings we found in a Mexican restaurant in Aurora. She was my favorite.

Buildings

The building of the restaurant, Lolo Brewery, where we had burgers our first night in Montana.

Look to the right. Ellen pointed out how cool it is that the old building remained and they built a modern building around it in Missoula.

Horse property outside of Livingston.

The family ranch where our friend, Glennis, grew up outside of Livingston, MT.

The old schoolhouse near the ranch.

Walls of an out building made of the round outside parts of logs.

The hay loft of the 100-year-old barn Glennis grew up in. Behind me where you can't see, is a basketball hoop she used to play on as a kid.

The old homestead property outside of Gillette, WY owned by Ellen, her siblings, and their descendents.

Floating under the bridge at the take-out on our Yellowstone River float. It was moving so fast the six miles of river took about 90 minutes. Needless to say we kayaked up and sat the whole time. Our paddle boards have the ability to turn into sit-on-top kayaks and have an extra paddle blade to make a kayak paddle. Boy did that conversion come in handy.

We stopped in Red Lodge and walked up and down mainstreet. Lots of old buildings and a very colorful house.

The bridge to the left is a swinging bridge over the Bighorn River in Thermopolis, WY. The travertine left by the hot springs is beautiful.

Above is a pedestrian bridge over 15 tracks at the train yard in downtown Laramie, WY.

Camps

Our first camp was outside of Ogden, UT named Anderson Cove CG. It was decided on this trip that perhaps we should stay at least two nights at a location as would have been fun to paddle board this lake the next day. But alas, we were due in Missoula and had to get on the road.

This is our Missoula camp. Yellow Rock Campground in Lolo, MT, ten miles south of Missoula. We stayed here two nights, July 1st-3rd.

Following Billings and the Beartooth Highway we landed in Thermopolis and the Fountain of Youth RV Park and Hot Springs. We stayed here one night. That was plenty and well worth it.

This is where we camped after we passed through Bozeman. This is the ranch land outside of Livingston, MT. It is beautiful. We stayed here three nights, July 3-6th.

After Livingston we moved onto the boat pad next to Mark's house in Billings. It was such a great spot. We stayed here five nights, July 6th-11th.

After a stop in Saratoga and driving the scenic highway toward Rawlins we found this little spot outside of Centennial, WY. Great for a one-nighter.

This is a sunset at our camp at Cherry Creek State Park. We stayed here from July 13th-18th before moving into the basement of my brother Jonathan's house in Centennial, CO. We stayed there two nights before doing a long day of driving on Sunday the 20th.

People

Let's start in Missoula. We arrived Tuesday, July 1st and met these fine folks for dinner. We then met Raquel the next day for our Bitterroot float. We were sad Mike could not join us.

After our float on Wednesday Ellen and I were on our own for the afternoon so we headed to downtown Missoula. Lots of old buildings, great art, an old carrousel and herds of folks like you see above just roaming around. It was the quantity and consistency that had us wondering what in the...?? Turns out there was a Shania Twain concert that night...whew. Glad we weren't missing out on the latest fashion trend.

Going on a bike ride on the Bozeman urban trails with Kelly and Glennis before heading to the ranch in Livingston for the next three nights. We met these two lovely ladies camping at McDowell Mtn Park in Phoenix back in January and became fast friends.

Visiting the ranch with brother Mark and getting Mark lessons.

That's the Yellowstone River behind us. Not five minutes after we launched a bald eagle flew overhead.

A day of adventuring with Mark around Billings.

Riding around the lake near Mark and Shirlee's house in Billings.

A quick visit to Cousin Kurt's family in Laramie. There is never enough time, but a wonderful visit nonetheless.

NOW we're in Denver, Aurora to be exact. We stayed at Cherry Creek State Park, about 20 minutes in two different directions to get to Evonne or Chelsea. Above was a Chelsea morning. She met us at Cherry Creek for a cloudy, waterfowl filled morning paddle. AND, there was a bald eagle on the shore when we arrived.

This first pic is of Munch at her work where she is a Gymnastics Coach for recreational gymnasts. It seems she has a knack for it and hoped to become a competitive coach in the future.

This is in front of the apartment where Munch and Evonne live. We got to take her to work a few times.

Girl's Day at Aurora Reservoir! Here we met up with Evonne, Munch, Chels, Evonne's childhood friend Stephanie, her two daughters Maya and Leah and Maya's friend, Lily. A good time was had by all until the afternoon storms sent people packing.

After a tour of Evonne's work we grabbed lunch at her favorite food truck. It was SO good.

Our drive home was made longer by forgetting our bikes in Jon and Hannah's garage. Luckily that guy to the right graciously volunteered to meet us in Colorado Springs, an hour and a half back for us, to meet up with him and get the bikes. My brother rocks.

Two peas in a pod.

This was an experience. We met Chelsea, the professional thrifter, at a Goodwill Outlet Store...with bins. Stuff is super cheap and you pay for it by weight but you have to be really patient and kinda know what you're looking for because everything is just tossed together in bins and people are rifling through it and tossing stuff and it was a bit much. However, Chels DID find me a Prana snap flannel shirt and Ellen an Athleta skirt and we paid maybe $3 for both of them. So yay.

I'm pretty sure people go here to find things of value (like the Prana shirt and Athleta skirt) with the intent of reselling it somewhere else. People literally brought chairs to rest in while they switched the bins around and were eating lunch and snacks. They had coolers. I was trippin.

Mango gets his own section...

Notice how all of these were shot vertically. Vertical screams action where as horizonal suggests inactivity. Rest. Lack of motion. NOT a two-year-old toddler.

Learning how to not lose his teeth on one of those sit-on-top toys at the playground that sits on a spring and can REALLY get going!

Drumming at the bottom of the big slide.

No, he's not eating it. He's trying to blow the dandelion seeds off. But it's not a dandelion. We didn't have the heart...

Calling his peeps. Come save me he says...

Eating his monster truck while calmly trying to escape his mother's grasp and maybe a quick picture.

Chillin at Aurora Reservoir with his Yaya.

Teaching Auntie Von how to read a menu.

A few pretty long moments of coloring with his Yayas.

Scenic

Our put in on the Bitterroot, SO beautiful.

The family ranch where our friend, Glennis, grew up outside of Livingston, MT.

More family ranch land, this time outside of Gillette, WY.

The Yellowstone River as it comes through Billings seen from a viewpoint known as Four Dances Natural Area.

A lake we passed driving down the Beartooth Scenic Highway.

Hot springs at our camp in Thermopolis, WY.

The hot springs pool at our camp.

On our way to Laramie we took the Saratoga Scenic Highway through Centennial, WY. This is in the Lake Marie area.

Beartooth Creek cutting through a canyon.

Hot springs create such beauty.

Signs

Sometimes, a sign says it all...

Pompeys Pillar National Monument.

Word.

The t-shirt in the window of a Red Lodge store says: Eleven heart stopping switchbacks, A gut wrenching one mile ascent, An endless supply of bone chilling views, A peak elevation of 10,947 feet, BEARTOOTH HIGHWAY. This was our last stop before the drive...