travel itinerary for a week in Montana
We are back from the FIRST TRIP DYLAN AND I HAVE TAKEN IN ALMOST 3 YEARS!!! HOLLLLAAA! It was exactly what I needed and we had so much fun! I feel like when people travel more west they hit up places like Utah, Colorado, Arizona, California, and Oregon and, while those places are beautiful and deserve to be traveled, I think Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming are super underrated and definitely worth a visit — which is exactly what we did (I know, it’s titled travel itinerary for a week in Montana but a travel itinerary for a week in Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming sounded too long). This was a laid-back work trip but I’m going to share our entire itinerary with you along with some things you could do instead!
DAY 1: BOZEMAN
We flew from Minneapolis to Bozeman and spent the first day here. Listen, Bozeman is SOCUTE! It’s lined with shops, breweries, coffee shops, and everything you could want for a day in the city. We started the day with brunch at Farmers Daughters Cafe & Eatery, the vibe of this place is so cute and all of us loved our food except Cody (don’t get the burrito I guess).
After brunch we hit up broadway and Sabrina and I literally shopped until we dropped. There are so many cute and unique shops here and I found a lot of interesting items! When we decided we’d spent enough money we went to find the boys for lunch at Jam (get a giant mimosa if you go) and afterwards we hit up some breweries: SHINE Beery Sanctuary and Lockhorn Cider House.
DAY 2: ISLAND PARK & EARTHQUAKE LAKE
Plot twist — we actually didn’t stay in Montana — we stayed right on the boarder in Idaho. After we were done with our day in Bozeman we made the 2 hour drive to our cabin and the next morning we had breakfast there and explored the teeny tiny town of Island Park for lunch (I don’t remember where we ate because I actually didn’t eat…). After lunch, we headed to Earthquake Lake because Dylan and I had photos scheduled (hence why I didn’t eat, I didn’t want to take a chance of feeling bloated or uneasy) with Macy Spencer Photography (she’s amazing, book her). We went in February so the visitor center was closed but this place was gorgeous and so fun to explore. I could tell it would be SO COOL in the summer too.
DAY 3: EARTHQUAKE LAKE… AGAIN
Remember when I said this was a work trip? Yup — back to Earthquake Lake we went for Cody & Sabrina’s engagement photos!
Alternate Ideas: You could rent snowmobiles and go snowmobiling through the mountains or, in the summer, visit Yellowstone (the West Yellowstone entrance was closed while we were there).
DAY 4: BIG SKY
The boys went snowmobiling and conveniently didn’t bring enough for the girls to tag along (ookay they only had enough for them and the rentals were booked through March) so Sabrina and I decided to take a little road trip to Big Sky and see what all the hype was about. We’re not skiers but we still had a good time! The drive alone was worth every second. We quickly learned that not a lot of things open before 4pm (I guess everyone’s on the slopes in town) but we finally found a place that was open and it didn’t disappoint! We ate lunch at By Word of Mouth and afterwards we went to the city center for… yup, you guessed it… more shopping!
DAY 5: ENNIS & VIRGINIA CITY
Dylan had his fun on the first day of snowmobiling and didn’t want to go with the boys again the next day (yay for me!) so he, Sabrina, and I headed to Ennis and Virginia City for the day. Ennis is the home of Willie’s Distillery where Dylan and I discovered our new favorite bourbon — Big Horn Bourbon Whiskey. We sat down at a table with a couple of locals who recommended we check out Virginia City (just down the road) afterwards. They told us to check out the brewery but when we got there it was closed so we just went to one of the bars in town and explored a little bit. This little town is so cute and has a lot of wild wild west vibes.
DAY 6: JACKSON HOLE
Let me start off by saying that we didn’t even scratch the surface of everything you could do in Jackson Hole. We basically took a day to check it out and make sure we wanted to plan an entire trip back there. We started our time at the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar. This place had a super cool environment but the food wasn’t to die for. All of the barstools are saddles and they had the best country music playlist.
Afterwards we did a little exploring around the city center to get more of a feel for this place, we will definitely be planning a trip back to spend a week there! We wrapped it up with coffee at Persephone and I had the best vanilla latte I’ve ever had.
Finally, we had to head back (it was a little over a 2 hour drive). The drive back to the cabin was actually one of my favorite parts of this day. Dylan made all of the stops for me to take so many photos — I can’t wait to get my film developed to show you more than just my phone photos!
DAY 7: FLY HOME
7 days flew right by! Our flight ended up getting rescheduled to SUPER early but we didn’t have much planned for this day anyways. If you have some time, you could check out the town of West Yellowstone which was about half an hour from Island Park, or just enjoy the last few hours at the cabin!
Screenshot this cheatsheet to refer back to!
