Bozeman September Trip (non-hunting/vacation)

[2ski]

All I can say is, "Y'all do a lot of drinking up in them there parts."

Wow, that's a lot of bars. I live in a tourist town (Great Smoky Mountains National Park) - Gatlingburg, TN and we don't have that many. Big thing we have are a few Honky Tonks like Blake Shelton's Ol' Red and Jimmy Buffet's Margueritaville.

Sounds a lot like the downtown Nashville, TN: Broadway area near the Ryhman Auditorium/Grand Ol' Opry.

We are very excited to be on our way soon, and I might make a separate thread with pictures of all the great times since not everyone gets to visit in their lifetime.

Oh. That wasn't all the bars. That was just the breweries, taprooms, and such. Bars will take me an hour or so to do a writeup on all of them.
You want to go to a bar that's been around for a while, try the Crystal.

 

[westbranch]

All I can say is, "Y'all do a lot of drinking up in them there parts."

Wow, that's a lot of bars. I live in a tourist town (Great Smoky Mountains National Park) - Gatlingburg, TN and we don't have that many. Big thing we have are a few Honky Tonks like Blake Shelton's Ol' Red and Jimmy Buffet's Margueritaville.

Sounds a lot like the downtown Nashville, TN: Broadway area near the Ryhman Auditorium/Grand Ol' Opry.

We are very excited to be on our way soon, and I might make a separate thread with pictures of all the great times since not everyone gets to visit in their lifetime.

MT beer consumption is quite high:

 

[Wildabeest]

MT beer consumption is quite high:

View attachment 191355

I guess I can’t compensate for the 2 million Mormons in UT all by myself. But it doesn’t mean I won’t keep trying.

 

[westbranch]

I guess I can’t compensate for the 2 million Mormons in UT all by myself. But it doesn’t mean I won’t keep trying.

If did my math right, the non Mormons per capita would be at 49 gallons per year.
Might be able to cut back a little

 

[TN_Rifle_Junkie]

We made our trip up to Bozeman on time and all I can say is... We had a great time.

Most importantly, thank you to all the HT'ers who put in their top picks. We still have a long list of things to do next trip to the area and we appreciate each one of you for helping make this such a great vacation, birthday, anniversary gift for my wife.

The best of Bozeman area for us was:

#1 Campanella Pizzaria next to Sitka store in northeast Bozeman. Best pizza we have had in a long time. This was also our anniversary dinner after YNP and the staff were awesome.
#2 Ted's Restaurant downtown
#3 OverEasy Cafe (breakfast) we wanted to try JAM! but ran out of time.
#4 Museum of the Rockies and the Gallatin County Museum. What a great first day in town.
#5 The Bozeman Hotsprings (This is a must do after a long travel day)
#6 Palisades Falls hike and Grotto Falls, both excellent areas especially around the lake for lunch. See below for boot break-in.

Schnee's Boots: It was a shopping trip afterall and we hit the Labor Day sale perfectly. We both got much better mountain boots and feel a lot more comfortable hiking/hunting out west over the next couple years. My wifes boots had a minor issue with them after a short walk (outside) and the partners were more than happy to replace the boots with a new pair and even hand-delivered them to our hotel since they were in the wearhouse. Unbelieveable customer service and very nice people.

If you ever plan on going to the area, steer clear of any chain restaurants (they stink) and stick with the locally owned, way better food and staff.

We did make it one day into YNP for as much as we could do. Lots of elk, lots of bison, not very many people. The West Yellowstone exit was jammed up at sunset (only negative).

Special thank you to @BirdManMike for you awesome hospitality and the chance to meet Pippin, let my wife go fishing at his local spots, and the recommendations for the Livingston area. The drive back to Bozeman from 5th Ave was EPIC with lots of public land elk sitings. (And a few in the ag fields too). There were tons of Mule Deer in the area and we had to take is slow all the way past Bridger Bowl.