Billings, Montana, United States
While I was hanging out at home instead of on-the-road
exploring Greece this spring, I started thinking about alternative getaways,
especially once our weak “stay at home” order was lifted. A first road trip of
the season was limited by two factors. Some states, including Montana, still had
14-day quarantines as of mid-May. Unless it’s lifted, if I were to follow the
rules I’d have to hang out at home for two weeks on my return. Meanwhile, most
interesting hiking options within the state are still too snowy in May.
Thus, I decided to explore the wilds of eastern Montana’s
Outback as for my first road trip of the social-distancing summer. Eastern Montana is what might be called
extreme social distancing, a place where it’s usually harder just to find other
people than it is to maintain some distance from them. That’s reflected in the fact that most of the
counties east of Billings recorded no Covid-19 plague cases at all, so it’s a very
cootie-free and safe place to go right now.
I decided to make the Billings area the destination for my
first day on the road.
I spent a day in Montana’s largest city in May of last
year, mostly exploring the sites in town. I planned to spend the next day
exploring some of the outskirts, but the weather changed quickly. So I drove home instead of hiking in the
rain. Since then I purchased a day hiking
guide to the Beartooth Mountains, which also includes trails in and around
Billings, so my first day involved checking out some of the most promising
sounding of them.
Billings is located along the Yellowstone River in a fairly
broad valley with some steep sides. The cliffs along the north side of the valley
are called the Rimrocks and rise about 300 feet above the city. The hills south
of the river form less of a barrier, but cliffs rise to almost 500 feet at Four
Dances Natural Area across the river from downtown.
I hiked in both those areas in the afternoon and evening,
including heading from the top of the cliffs at Four Dances all the way down to
the bottomlands along the river. There’s
also a short hiking trail to the caves at Pictographs Caves State Park, a
scenic spot only a few miles from town where ancient Indian rock art has been
found.
To be honest, the scenery is more impressive than the prehistoric pictures.
With some time to kill before my dinner reservation, I also checked out some of
the parks along the river for some extra miles under my belt before the big
feed – Lake Josephine and Norm Schoenthal Island.
My treat for the day was dinner at Oktoberfest
Restaurant in the northwest part of town, said to be one of the best German
restaurants in the state. It’s a celebration – my first beer and first meal out
in nine weeks, a delayed venture out considering that restaurants have been
allowed to open again at 50% capacity for almost two weeks. My “Big Sky Platter” consisting of a
schnitzel, two bratwurst, two pork shanks, sauerkraut, and red cabbage, on a
mound of mashed potatoes was as mouth-watering as it was huge. And the German
Oktoberfest and Kolsch beers never tasted so good. I don’t feel too guilty about it since I
estimate I got in about twelve to thirteen miles of walking over the course of
the day.
Deb Sherer
2020-05-27
There was lots of Geese in Yellowstone, too.