For the first time in my rather short life I got to travel to Big Sky country. Yep, you guessed it - Montana.
Early on Dude took me fishing on the Gallatin River. The water was pretty high and off color, as most of the rivers in the areas were still in runoff. I was satisfied with spending the morning sunning in the streamside brush. Dude managed a few trout along the edges of the river. Show-off.
searching for salmonflies on the Gallatin
Later that afternoon, I was super hopped up for heading to the Big Sky Resort where luckily they was a "Brews, Brats and Brisket" festival. I managed to catch up with some distant cousins. There were about a dozen local breweries represented. I couldn't ask for a better day.
Jürgen Knöller - the brewmaster at Bayern
The best beer of the festival was easily Bayern's Dragons Breath Dark Hefeweizen.
Throughout the week we ventured into Yellowstone National Park. If you've never been to YNP, I'd quickly put it on your to-do list. It's simply incredible. There is so much to see and I can't get over how huge it is. Of course it's surrounded by great brewerys/pubs at almost every entrance.
Gardiner entrance
We also headed back to into Bozeman, where we spent the day exploring the Museum of the Rockies. The dinosaur exhibit is top notch. From there we headed to Montana Ale Works for some delicious brews and met up with the rest of our crew for a wonderful dinner.
Another stroke of luck, while talking to our very friendly bartender, we were told to hang around for Music on Main later that evening. We did. Visiting with the locals, gotta love it. The headliner was Tony Furtado. Pretty good music played by some great musicians. I'll just say I've never heard slide banjo and yes, they simply pulled up a flatbed truck and played on Main Street.
Wow, how do I love Bozeman!
My... what big teeth you have
Overall it was a really great first trip. The only thing I really didn't enjoy was the flight, as I was stuffed in suitcase alongside fishing equipment. Let me tell you after a week or so of Dude's fishing - that gear can get rank.
My only wish was that some of my other buds could have come along...
Maybe on my next trip to Big Sky Country. I'll keep you all informed.
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