Bozeman, Montana, United States
They say that in Montana there are two seasons – nine months
of winter and three months of house guests. Others say those three months are
road construction. Anyway, my brother and three friends visited me over the
course of about a month in August and September. I took them all for hikes around the region
and also showed them around town. “I’d like to spend some time seeing Bozeman,”
my friend John said. Absolutely, but
what would you then like to do after lunch?
In a small city that not too long ago was even significantly
smaller, there is not that much in the way of sights to show the visitor. I took for a walk around campus at MSU and
then to the Museum of the Rockies, a quite large museum devoted largely to
dinosaur skeletons and paleontology. We
also went to the small computer museum at MSU (my first time) why was only
mildly interesting to me since I’m not much of a tech geek. And then there are
the breweries, of which Bozeman allegedly has about 15 (although I haven’t been
to them all). Beer is always a fun tourist
attraction, at least for me.
Sunday, August 18th, the day after John’s
arrival, was the annual “Cruising on Main” event in downtown Bozeman, which I
figured would be a good time for us to do a walk through downtown since it
turned out to be abeautiful morning. I knew this event had to do with antique
and classic cats but wasn’t really sure what to expect. The name made it sound
like there would be some kind of parade of these vehicles. The actual event is
Main Street through the center of Bozeman closed down to cars and made into a
pedestrian zone with several hundred vehicles, most of them privately owned and
some available for sale, lined up for observation and inspection by the public.
If you go online and search for “Top Attractions in Bozeman”
or something similar, one of the things that appears high on the list is
Montana Grizzly Encounter. Located at an exit on the Interstate a few miles
east of Bozeman toward Bozeman Pass, I assumed previously that it was some kind
of old-school 1950s style roadside tourist trap. On my two visits there with
John and Todd, though, I was pleasantly surprised to discover it is an
authentic rescue mission center and home currently to five grizzly bears rescued
from different places as cubs that are unable to be reintroduced to the wild.
There might be some standard zoos that have
grizzly bears, but otherwise you wouldn’t want to get anywhere near as close to
one in the wild as you can at this place for an only $8 admission. And being
the only attraction here, there are no distractions to keep you from lingering
and observing, unlike zoos where seeing the various animals can be like a check-off
list. And there’s usually a naturalist present giving an ongoing talk about
everything from bear safety to the life experiences of the bears on display. Grizzlies are apparently not very social, so
only one bear is out in the viewing enclosure at a time. The star of them all is a rather young female
named Bella who is especially active at play and in vigorously finding treats hidden
around the enclosure for her.
2025-05-22