We had to drive on a gravel road out of Cooney State Park for about three miles before we came to a paved county road. We waited to hook up the Honda until we got to the pavement so the rig wouldn’t spit rocks out onto the front of the car. After we were all in the same vehicle we took the narrow county road  to a slightly larger state Highway and eventually got onto I-90 at Columbus. From there we drove for a short while until we reached our next campground in Big Timber. The drive was pretty and quick, so it was an easy travel day.

Our reservation in Big Timber was only for one week and it turned out to be a good one. Big Timber is a small town of less than 2,000 in Sweet Grass County. The rolling hills of farms, livestock and sweet grass wave their way along the Yellowstone and Boulder Rivers toward shiny white mountain ranges on a nearby horizon. The Absaroka Mountain Range was to our south. Crazy Peak and Loco Mountain were to the north. I did not make that up. The Spring Creek Campground and Trout Farm was about 20 miles north of the Gallatin National Forest, just far enough off of I-90 for both easy access and peaceful quiet. The Boulder River bordered the eastern edge of our campground, and the roar it continuously emitted was enough to drown out the sound of birds when the water rushed strong enough. In the background it sounded like wind. The campground was immaculately landscaped. Most of the guests were there for one or two nights, but a couple of other campers were like us and were there for more than a quick stop. They also had cabins that guests could rent, and a tent camping area was on the far side in a grassy area close to the river. The dogs loved it because there were fields of pristine lush green grass to sniff and roll around on.  There was even a camp cat named Cookie.

During the times that we weren’t enjoying our campground, we kept busy with daily excursions. We went to see a waterfall in the National Forest. It is the first one I recall seeing that goes through a chute and explodes out the bottom of a rock. We went to mass at the Catholic Church, but the website was wrong so we were 15 minutes late. We met some friends for lunch (as if I can say that every day, ha). We found an ultra cool local bar called Holly’s Roadkill Saloon. In fact, we liked it so much when we visited on a Friday afternoon, that we went back on Saturday! We had dinner in the saloon of the Grand Hotel in downtown, and took the dogs to walk in one of the municipal parks on the river. As I said, it was a good week!

Our spot at Spring Creek Campground & Trout Farm. It was pretty tight. We never had any neighbors in the open space beside us, so it worked out just fine.

The Boulder River was the eastern border of the campground.

When we were at Cooney State Park we didn’t have internet or phone service. By the time we arrived in Big Timber, I was starved for a “connection”. We were down in a hole by the river, so our ATT signal still didn’t work. However, the campground was supposed to have free wifi. We couldn’t log on to the park’s signal from our camping spot, and when I told the lady at the front desk about the problem her answer was “it should work”. But it didn’t. So for the first couple of days I hauled my laptop to the pavilion by the office to get online and work on my blog. It finally dawned on one of the staffers to reset the signal that pointed in the direction of our site. After he reset the switch we were good with a signal in our coach and I didn’t have to go to the pavilion in the mornings with my coffee and laptop.

Cookie the camp cat. He helped me work on my laptop on the mornings that I worked in the pavilion. Later in our stay he ambushed Piper from under our picnic table by the Monaco. The dog came out of it with a scratch on his face and a renewed fervor for the destruction of all things feline.

The trout farm part of our campground.

Natural Bridge Falls in the Gallatin National Forest was about 26 miles down the road from our campground. It was easy to find… just turn into the parking lot where the paved road ends.

The Boulder River is a tributary of the Yellowstone River. It rises in the Gallatin National Forest in the Absaroka Mountain Range and flows north to Big Timber, where it hooks up with the Yellowstone River.

Some crazy rocks in the Natural Bridge Falls Recreation Area.

Wikipedia says the Boulder Rivers flows through a cataract under a natural bridge. So you are looking at a cataract.

Taking it all in.

During late spring for about 4 or 5 hours (only), when the snowmelt is just right, the waterfall will go OVER the rocks as well as through the chute.

Mindy dog at The Kill. You might notice her collar says PLEASE DO NOT FEED ME. I don’t think she can read because that doesn’t stop her from asking anyone nearby to share their lunch.

The view on the road into our campground was a good one.

A sign behind the bar at The Kill.

I thought Mike was taking a photo of me… but he was really capturing a picture of this immaculately restored 1940’s Peterbilt.

The Max has the reputation for being the best band in Montana. They’ve been playing together for 30 years and they were GREAT!!!

A selfie from the summer bash at The Kill.

Those are our friends that we met during the summer bash party at The Kill. Mike, Vicki, Deb and Jim were passing through on their way to Chico Hot Springs. We struck up a conversation and enjoyed visiting with them until they got back on the road and drove west.

Even the band had an exceptional view on that fun Saturday afternoon.

A drone was at the party. We all waved. A couple of girls (and by girls, I mean ladies in their early 60’s) lifted their shirts!

Mike spotted this bald eagle on a fence post while we were driving back to our campground. It was gazing out at a pasture full of sheep. It started flying right as I snapped the photo.

Where is Cookie the camp cat???

My friend Nancy and her husband, Wright, live in Houston (with their sweet pup Aro), and have a summer home in Sand Point, Idaho. They were literally passing through Big Timber on their way up north, so they stopped to have lunch with us. What a fun treat!

A small group of pronghorn antelope lived on the “hill” across from the entrance into our campground. This mama had two babies with her. We got to see them every day!

A typical view from Highway 89 driving south toward Gardiner – and the northern entrance into Yellowstone.

Chico Hot Springs Resort was a little over one hour’s drive from Big Timber. I went on a solo daytrip to see the resort and soak in the hot springs.

The tourist literature says something to the effect of “guests ask us if we can turn down the temperatures in the pools, but we cannot because it comes from the ground”.

Chico Hot Springs Resort and Day Spa was established in 1900. I want to go back and stay there! In addition to the mineral pools, they have rafting, fishing, hiking, horseback tours, a spa, two restaurants and a bar with live music. In the winter they have skiing, snow shoeing and dogsled treks!

Is this not the best neon sign you’ve ever seen on a bar!

Because of the size of the Monaco we like to stay on larger highways or an Interstate when we are traveling. We also prefer campgrounds with full hook-ups, because life is so much more convenient when we don’t have to worry about the amount of water we use and stuff like that. The western side of Montana was on our agenda after Wyoming (last fall we spent two weeks in Miles City, on the eastern side of the state).  Billings is just north of Cody… so as Mike was searching for places to stay in the Treasure State, I figured he would make a reservation for us somewhere with easy access to I-90. Billings is also the largest city in Montana, so it was likely they had some RV Parks near there that would suit our needs.

Boy, was I in for a surprise when he told me about his campground selection for the next leg of our trip. He had picked a state park off the beaten path with no water or sewer connections – only electricity (in some spots). Cooney State Park was about an hour southwest of Billings and 30 minutes north of Red Lodge. To add to my shock, they did not have a spot available for the full week we wanted to stay. Our reservation coincided with the Memorial Day weekend, and the park was going to be full. The plan was for us to check in to spot #7 on the day we arrived. However, it was only available for two days. On our third day we would move to spot #16. This spot had no hook-ups at all, and was also booked for part of our time. After three days in #16, we would have to move again – back to #7 for our last two days.

As Mike was explaining the logistics to me, I was wondering if maybe he had hit his head on something and wasn’t thinking clearly. I wanted to feel his forehead to see if he had a fever and might be slightly delirious. Instead, I just nodded and smiled. He is the one that does the research to find our campgrounds and make our reservations after all, so all I could do was smile and try to be supportive. The bottom line is that this trip is an adventure, and it is important to “go with the flow”. No one wants a travel partner who bitches and moans all the time.

On travel day, I was mentally prepared to “rough it” during our time at the state park. The campground was on a lake and the scenery was likely to be beautiful, so I figured I could easily go one week without regular showers. I noted to myself that I wouldn’t have to spend too much time on chores either, since laundry was going to be out of the question. I also bought extra paper plates at the grocery store so we wouldn’t have to do too many dishes. I was ready… or so I thought.

From Cody we drove north on State Highway 120, cut west on highway 308, and then went north through Red Lodge on 212. When we turned off of 212 toward the park, the road was ONE-lane and gravel. I checked the map on my phone, and saw we were still about 8 miles away from the campground. We kept driving slowly away from civilization and into a vast expanse of lush green hills covered in sweet grass. I calmly asked him if we were going to get to a paved road again soon. He said he didn’t know. At this point I wanted to ask him who he really was and what he had done with my husband. Instead I just muttered things like “OMG!  What if we come to a section of the road that is washed out? What if we come to a bridge that is too small to hold us? If we get stuck out here we won’t be able to turn around. What will we do then”? He just ignored me and kept driving – slowly.

We did finally make it to the park and it was gorgeous. It was Wednesday before the holiday weekend so only a few campers were set up. We quickly determined that there were three spots that had electricity and were not part of the reservation system. They were first-come-first-served. If they were open we could park there and not have to move. As we were consulting the map at the entrance and trying to determine the location of these three magical sites, another camper came in behind us and drove to the north side of the campground. We decided there was no time to lollygag, we had to find those three spots and see if any of them were open before any other campers came in and passed by us. We disconnected the Honda, left the Monaco at the entrance, and jumped in the car to drive through the park as quickly as possible. We found the three spots. One already had a camper set up. The guy that had just passed us had taken the second one, and there was one left!

I waited there while Mike walked back and drove the Monaco over to get us parked and plugged in. We tried to call the park office to make sure we could cancel the existing reservations in #s 7 and 16, but our remote location meant we had no cell service. Mike walked over to the camp host and talked to a very nice lady named Cynthia. He explained that we had reservations, but we preferred to cancel those and just stay where we had landed. Everything to that point had been done online, but we didn’t have an internet connection either. Without Cynthia’s help we were at a stand still. Lucky for us she was very accommodating. She made all the necessary changes to the reservation system and we were finally legitimate. Once again, we were feeling that luck was on our side during The Martin’s American Adventure.

It turned out to be a great week at Cooney. Since we were in the middle of NOWHERE, there was no noise. No traffic, no trains, no sirens, nothing. Just peaceful quiet and that big Montana sky. Mike fished quite a bit. The weather was warm, so I spent many hours napping in the sun. We went into Red Lodge a couple of times to find an internet connection and eat at some local restaurants. At the end of the week, we found another paved road leading back to Highway 212, so our stay even ended on a positive note!

We try to avoid traveling in bad weather when possible. It was raining on the day we drove from Cody to Cooney State Park, but we drove through to the other side of the weather pattern and it eventually cleared up. Luckily, it was dry when we hooked up at our new spot.

Mike made the reservations at Cooney State Park, and had mentioned to me that we would not have a water or sewer connection at the campground. He did not, however, mention the REMOTE location of the lake. When we turned off the paved highway and onto a gravel road, I was leery. After seven or so miles, I was a nervous wreck. We have never moved that far away from civilization in the Monaco before!

Being in the middle of nowhere does have its advantages… big sky, green hills, quiet.

We called this the half and half tree. It couldn’t decide if it wanted to live or die.

Our spacious spot at the state park.

Sunrise.

Red Lodge is the cutest little town. There are about 2,500 citizens in town and about 4,000, if you include the ranchers out in the county. The summer season brings tourists and fly fishermen who are heading into the Beartooth Mountains down the road. The Main Street was full of historic buildings that housed shops, galleries, restaurants and other local service businesses.

The historic Depot Building is now an artist coop. The quality of the art available was quite impressive. I bought a small print from a Native American artist that lives in the area. Its called “Burnin’ Love”.

I loved this carved statue outside the local Carnegie Library.

The interior of the Red Lodge Café was so “Montana”!

Part of the Cooney Reservoir.

Custer National Forest in the distance.

Almost a double rainbow after the storm.

Our campground in the distance.

A view from our daily walk.

We were there over Memorial Day weekend, and it ended up being packed!

Absaroka Mountain Range

A flock of wild turkey.

We stopped to chat with these deer on our way home from dinner one evening.

Our last sunset at Cooney State Park.

When we left Cooney Reservoir to drive to Big Timber, we took a paved road – but the lanes were still narrow with no shoulder.