View from hotel window on July 4th, 2019 (Bozeman, MT)

After 9 nights of camping we take a break from sleeping on the ground to celebrate the 4th in Bozeman. Population about 40,000, Bozeman is another mountain college town (and another blue dot in a mostly red state). The views are grand, the local breweries (and kambucha makers) are many, and the place definitely has that special feel that makes you want to come back even before you leave.

At Norris Geyser

We left the always chill Signal Mountain Campground like hotel guests trying to skip out on the bill. 4:50 AM! That is the time we woke up to begin packing away the tent in order to hit the road before 5:30 to make it to the Norris Campground in Yellowstone to then stand in a line through a bit of hail for about an hour to then camp in the same area that Corey and I did 21 years ago on our first trip. Was it all worth it? Hell yeah.

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

So we rode horses, dodged rain drops, and did our best not to get eaten by a Grizzly. The horses were something Corey and Henna really wanted to do. As for me, well I was just happy not to fall off. But it was fun sitting on a walking horse that made 3 miles in about an hour with three cowhands making sure no one got hurt. Honestly it made us kind of cocky and now we have a shared fantasy of riding the range (with of course the same three cowhands keeping us safe and never going faster than 3 MPH).

A couple of tents and one kid later we again camp alongside the beautiful Gibbon River at the Norris Campground