Starling Travel

I saw this advertisement for Montana in an old National Geographic.

It’s from the April 1970 issue and it reads:

The Great Escape… Montana The Big Sky Country

Escape from the ordinary to this uncrowded, unspoiled, unmatched land – 147,000 square miles of America’s grandest scenery. Visit famous historical sights and state parks. Explore fabled ghost towns. Relax in one of 577 campgrounds. Thrill to exciting rodeos. Get away to Montana – one continuous sightseeing experience between Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks.

There is a modern version of this advertisement here:

• Montana’s Official Tourism, Travel & Vacation Info Site

It’s true. There is a lot to see in Montana and it’s worth the drive to get there. As a child, I went to Montana every summer because my grandparents lived in Billings. As an adult, I miss it if I don’t go there once a year. I missed going to Yellowstone and Montana this summer and I can feel it calling to me. Now, however, there are 748 campgrounds waiting for me to visit…

While going through my grandmother’s collection of knitting and crochet books, I found this old photograph of Lower Falls in Yellowstone.

The information on the back made us very excited.

It is a hand painted photograph by J. E. Haynes, son of Frank Jay Haynes, the first official Yellowstone photographer. F. Jay Haynes actually named many of the Yellowstone sites and was instrumental in documenting Yellowstone. J. E. Haynes, followed in his footsteps.

My grandmother’s photograph is pretty faded, so I tried to spruce it up a bit.

Here is what the sight looks like today.

Lower Falls is located in the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.

• Lower Falls on Google Maps

Mike and I are planning a trip to Yellowstone National Park soon, so we were interested to see if we were going to be buried in six feet of snow again this year. Fortunately, the lovely Roland K. Smith visited Yellowstone on opening day this year and gave us a bunch of photos to see how our trip might be.

• Roland K. Smith’s Weblog » Opening Day in Yellowstone National Park

For some strange reason we didn’t get to Yellowstone Park once last year. We decided we were definitely going to change that this year and further determined that, if possible and the weather permitted, we would go to Yellowstone on the first day that vehicular traffic was allowed into the Park.

Last year, Mike and I went to Yellowstone on opening day and we got a FAR different welcome.

The snow was piled higher than our ears. I don’t think we’ll run into that again this year. Thanks, Roland, for scoping it out for us!

To see more of Roland’s Yellowstone Photos:

• Yellowstone Springtime 2009

To see more of last year’s Yellowstone trip:

• Starling Travel » Yellowstone Photographs

• Yellowstone Park 04-20-08 on Flickr

Our snowy stay in West Yellowstone was made more pleasant by our hotel. We stayed at the Comfort Inn in West Yellowstone.

Here are the photos of the Hotel SWAG as it was presented on 04-19-08:

Here is the coffee setup.

This Quattro razor was also on the counter. I don’t know if it was included in the SWAG or if we will be charged if we use it. The sign says complimentary, but it’s hard to know.

Here is the keycard.

The Internet connection wasn’t screaming fast, but it was usable. Additionally, there were several open wi-fi networks nearby that were also available.

Where:

Comfort Inn West Yellowstone

638 Madison Ave.
P.O. Box 1050
West Yellowstone, MT 59758
406-646-4212 • Fax 406-646-4212
Reservations 888-264-2466

Our first foray into Yellowstone this spring was greeted with snow and baby buffalo.

With the snow piled higher than our ears, we waited for Old Faithful to erupt.

For more photos:

• Yellowstone Park 04-20-08 on Flickr

On our way back from Billings, we stayed the night at the Best Western Crosswinds Motor Inn in West Yellowstone, Montana. They also allow pets, but if you have allergies, you won’t be able to tell because their rooms are so clean. Here is the SWAG as it was presented on 08-24-07:

This motel is within walking distance of all the fun places in West Yellowstone. It’s right on the main strip and our room faced the busy road, but we couldn’t hear road traffic because the insulation was so good. Our room had a refrigerator in it, which was an added bonus that we didn’t expect.

After such a harrowing trip, the Crosswinds Motor Inn was a quiet and pleasant place for us to rest on our way home.

If you have taken pictures of Hotel SWAG, please share them with us on Flickr:

• Flickr: Hotel SWAG

Or you can contact me and I can post them here and give you credit for it:

• Contact Laura Moncur

Without a doubt, my favorite place to stay in Billings, Montana is the Clock Tower Inn. They accept pets, but their rooms are clean and didn’t set off my husband’s allergies. It is closest to the best restaurants in Billings. I have stayed at plenty of hotels in Billings, but my favorite is the Clock Tower Inn. Here is the hotel SWAG as it was presented on 08-20-07:

I’m ashamed to say that the SWAG at this hotel made me squeal with joy.

On the back of the toilet, they had extra toilet paper, a shower cap and a disposal bag. I love the container for the shower cap. If you actually USE a shower cap and want to keep it, this is the BEST little box for one because it allows the cap to dry, it’s recloseable and it is compact.

I usually don’t take pictures of the coffee setup at hotels because I don’t drink coffee, but everything looked so good, I snapped a picture of the coffee as well.

They even performed a little bit of toilet paper origami. It’s little touches like this that make the hotel experience all the better.

We had to stay in Billings because my grandfather died. It was a horrible time for us and the one respite we had at the end of those hard days was coming back to the Clock Tower Inn. I’m so grateful for them.

If you have taken pictures of Hotel SWAG, please share them with us on Flickr:

• Flickr: Hotel SWAG

Or you can contact me and I can post them here and give you credit for it:

• Contact Laura Moncur

Once again, it’s Hotel SWAG week. Today, we are showing the hotel SWAG from the Days Inn in Billings, Montana. These photos were taken 07-29-07:

This was on the counter by the sink:

This was taken in the shower. We had a handicaped room (saved us $5 a night), so all we had was a shower. This bath mat with soap and shampoo were sitting on the shower seat.

I liked this hotel. There was a friendly cat who lived there. He liked to sit on the printer and would let me pet him if he happened to be in the hall.

If you have taken pictures of Hotel SWAG, please share them with us on Flickr:

• Flickr: Hotel SWAG

Or you can contact me and I can post them here and give you credit for it:

• Contact Laura Moncur

We went to the Museum of the Rockies to see an exhibit that they have there until September:

• Museum of the Rockies > Tutankhamun

Here is their description of the exhibit:

“Ten years in the making from the artisans of the Pharaonic Village in Egypt, the Field Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, this dazzling collection of 126 reproductions faithfully preserves Tutankhamun’s treasures. Included in the exhibit are Tutankhamun’s magnificent state chariot, golden shrines, beds, thrones, jewelry, his spectacular funerary mask, mummy case, and royal mummy. There are also associated artifacts from the period surrounding Tutankhamun’s reign that reconstruct both the historic discovery of the tomb by Howard Carter and the life and times of Egypt’s celebrated boy king.”

If you have seen the King Tutankhamun Museum at the Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas, you will be underwhelmed by the reproductions at The Museum of the Rockies. In fact, if you have seen the gift shop at the Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas, you will be underwhelmed by this exhibit.

The entire cost of entry, however, was made up by the dinosaur exhibit. I have never been to a better dinosaur museum. I was amazed at the collection that they had. Here is me next to a T-Rex skull.

My favorite part of the museum was the collection of Triceratops skulls lined up according to age. Baby Triceratop skulls right up to old age and everything in-between. Each skull was labeled with the exact location in Montana where it was found.

They also had paleontologists there, working on fossils and explaining them to questioning children. I felt like a peeping tom, looking in on their work in the office, but it didn’t stop me from looking. It was totally awesome!

With the horrible King Tut reproductions forgotten, we left the museum happy and wishing we could stay and see more.

Where:

Museum of the Rockies
600 W Kagy Blvd
Bozeman, MT 59717
Phone: (406) 994-2251

Google Map

After dining at some casino restaurants in Billings, Montana, I had given up on finding any food in an enjoyable atmosphere. Then we found Grains of Montana and were pleasantly surprised.

• Grains of Montana

The most endearing part of the restaurant for me was a small touch that might not even be noticed by most people. The “number” that they gave us to put on our table while we waited for our food wasn’t a number at all. It was a little card telling me something about a town in Montana. In this case, it was Pendroy.

It gave the restaurant such a local flavor that I immediately loved eating my egg salad sandwich on sourdough bread with kettle chips. It was a simple meal, but it felt like incredibly good food that I couldn’t get anywhere else.

Mike had the chicken pesto pizza. I had no idea that Billings had heard of “pesto” until we saw it on their menu.

Unlike so many of the trendy bakery restaurants that have infiltrated Salt Lake City, Grains of Montana had an EASY ordering process. We were able to tell ONE person ONCE what we wanted and paid her. At Paradise Bakery, for example, we end up having to tell four separate people our order before we are allowed to pay for it. Grains of Montana made the process so much smoother.

There were desserts aplenty. We tried the cinnamon roll and its delicious cream cheese frosting was perfect: not too sweet and fresh. There were so many desserts to try that we wanted to return, but our time in Billings was short. If you get a chance to try their brownies, please comment here and tell me what I missed out on.

Best of all, there was free wi-fi available. We had looked all over Billings and finding free wi-fi is difficult, to say the least. Grains of Montana announced it loudly with this sign on their door. It had been days since we had partaken of free wi-fi, so it made that little cafe feel like a piece of home.

In the end, the visit to Billings was made better just by visiting Grains of Montana. It’s amazing how healing an egg salad sandwich and free wi-fi can be where neither are easily accessible.

Where:

Grains of Montana Bakery
926 Grand Ave.
Billings, Montana 59102
Phone (406) 259-7142
Fax (406) 259-7152
Email: grainsofmontana@qwest.net

STORE HOURS
Mon. – Fri. 7:00 am – 9:00 pm
Sat. 8:00 am – 9:00 pm
Sun. 8:00 am – 8:00 pm