We love to travel and we normally try to take an international trip every year. We save up and we don’t live extravagantly because travel is something we have always valued and consider an investment in ourselves. There is just nothing like experiencing and learning from cultures different than your own. But as we all know…. 2020 had other plans for many of us. Robby has wanted to go out west for as long as I’ve known him and I’ve always made the argument that domestic travel will be easier with kiddos so we’ve always gone abroad. But thank you 2020 for introducing me to the beauty of Montana. I honestly can’t wait to go back to just sit and bask in God’s goodness all around.

Jackson, WY

Explore: Grand Teton National Park

Eat: Glorietta Trattoria — 10/10 on aesthetic, food, drink & dessert. It books up very quickly especially with current restrictions so plan ahead!

Stay: We weren’t impressed with the hotel in Jackson. We had to switch last minute from The Mountain Modern Motel which looked awesome… so I’d suggest this place over where we stayed.

West Yellowstone

Explore: Yellowstone National Park — We barely scratched the surface of what Yellowstone has to offer but we managed to see a ton of the park in one day.

Stay: The Evergreen Motel — This motel was super charming. Our room was small, cozy and very chic Montana. It was affordable and clean and close to the park entrance/exit.

Eat: The food selection is pretty random and touristy. There was a taco truck we really wanted to eat at but it was closed for the season. We ended up at a pizza/wing saloon and it was perfect after a long day of driving & exploring.

Whitefish, MT

Explore: Glacier National Park — Our hope was to make it to the Sun Road… however the day we arrived was the last day it was open for the rest of 2020. It was a huge bummer but we were still able to hike to Avalanche Lake which was incredible and it snowed as we arrived to the peak of the hike.

Stay: Grouse Mountain Lodge — Perfect lodge-feel for us. They had a pool, hot tub, coffee bar, restaurant/bar, and shuttle service. It was a really nice room and felt very clean. We were also really close to town and could be anywhere in 5 mins or less.

Eat: There are plenty of options in the town of Whitefish. We ate and watched the Bama game at Craggy’s and it was typical bar food. And we also ended up at Casey’s (which in hindsight felt v appropriate and Yellowstone of us) and it was also similar bar food. We didn’t plan ahead and honestly the place I really wanted to go was already booked when I was planning the trip. We did great breakfast one morning from Montana Coffee Traders and that was delish!

Big Sky, MT

Explore: We did a short horseback riding trip one day and explored the town. And then one day we split up and I got a massage with Robby fly fished on the Gallatin. We were going to drive and explore Livingston but we’d had enough driving for the trip so we’ll have to explore next time.

Stay: Lone Mountain Ranch — This is a must stay. It was magical and exactly what we were looking for during our adventure out west. They had horseback riding, yoga, bonfires, smores, and the cutest primitive log cabins.

Eat: The best restaurant in town happened to be less than a football field away from our charming little bungalow. Horn & Cantle is hands down the best restaurant of the trip and possibly in our top 10 favorite places we’ve eaten.