Tracing the Yellowstone through Montana

We left Yellowstone and Mammoth CG headed north and east along the Yellowstone River through Montana. We stopped at Chico Hot Springs after about an hour on the road. Chico Hot Springs Resort is a historic resort featuring a natural hot spring pool. Water is funneled into a small swimming pool. From there it empties into a larger pool where cold water is mixed as well. The temperature in the first pool was just barely tolerable, the second pool is more like a typical heated pool, perhaps 90 degrees. We spent an hour or so flipping from one pool to the other and then dried off and head back down the road.

Chico Hot Springs

Our next stop was in Livingston MT. Dorcas wanted to stop at a bead shop there, and we shopped at the Radio Shack to buy a replacement connector for Dorcas' PC. There was an inviting pizza shop, Earth's Crust Pizza, in the strip mall behind the Radio Shack, so we checked it out. We were less than impressed by the buffet which was in an unlighted corner. I couldn't see what was there. There was an item on the menu board that we did not recognize, so we asked what it was. The server didn't know; not a good sign, so we left. The most exciting thing about Livingston was trying to get out of town. We had come into town on I-90 Business from the west, and thought we would continue on I-90B eastbound to return to I-90. It was not to be. We saw a big sign declaring “ROAD CLOSED” and were forced to a side street to the left. Instead of a series of detour signs, the road looped back to the west, with no instruction for the confused traveler. The detour had put us on the wrong side of the railroad tracks, and there was no way to get back to the highway. Still no “DETOUR” signs in sight. We finally wound our way through the suburbs and negotiated a railroad underpass (with whole inches to spare overhead!) and found our way back to I-90B. Unfortunately, the intersection was a very sharp angle, and we could not turn west to get back out of town the way we had come in, so we had to turn east, back toward the unfortunate detour. Then we made a series of UPS turns (right turns) and finally backtracked to I-90 on the west end of town. I don't see any point in ever going back to Livingston.

The mighty free-flowing Yellowstone

A view of the Yellowstone

Once safely back on the road we continued east down the Yellowstone River valley. We stopped in Billings at the Sam's store and bought groceries and fuel. We spent the night at the Walmart in Miles City MT after a 330 mile day.