Bozeman, MT Vacation
Sunday, May 3rd, 2026 04:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
1mpavidusTrying to get better about writing and posting more long form thoughts, so I thought rambling about my recent trip to Howler's Inn in Bozeman, MT with Will would be a good place to start!
We've been needing a vacation in the worst way and this was the perfect weekend trip. Howler's is a B&B and also a sanctuary for captivity-bred wolves who can't be released into the wild. As you're all probably aware, I am a wolf freak lmao.
We left Spokane and traveled through the Idaho panhandle across to Montana. The scenery on this drive is always fantastic, but it's pretty hard to get pictures of. Our first stop was at 50,000 Silver Dollar Inn. If you've never been... I don't know if I can really describe it. You'll just have to look up some pictures. We did find Excalibur there though, so that was something.
We stopped for lunch in Missoula, at a little Irish pub called the Stone of Accord. My boss used to live there and recommended it to us, and it was pretty good! We had beef pasties and potato crusted cheese curds.
We got to the inn right at check in time, so it worked out perfectly. The building and our room were gorgeous, and there was a great big tub and windows that overlooked both wolf enclosures. There were five wolves - Kiowa and Raven, a female and male, lived in one half of the enclosure, and Koa, Shilo and Shasta, two males and a female, lived on the other side. Kiowa was my bestie and RAN up to the fence to greet me every time I went to the enclosure, I even got to give her scratches and get kisses from her through the fence.
The wolves were bred in captivity for various sanctuaries, zoos, or private owners, and wound up at the sanctuary because they couldn't be cared for anymore. They're obviously well taken of (a couple of them are even a tiny bit pudgy lol) and clearly get a lot of enrichment playing with eachother and even hunting inside their enclosure. (Tw ahead for animal death circle of life stuff) We watched Shilo dig up a small rodent and eat it right in front of us, and Raven caught a magpie that got a liiiittle too close to his food. The magpie was less fun to see since I love them and they're my favorite bird, but unfortunately that is the way nature goes. It was nice to see that even in captivity these wolves get to experience the enrichment of hunting animals that naturally come into their enclosure, just like they would in the wild. (The amount of fur in the enclosure also tells me there have been a decent number of very unlucky bunnies. Rip.)
Speaking of magpies, they were EVERYWHERE in the area. We couldn't be outside for more than 2 minutes without seeing one. It was like that when I lived in Colorado, too, and I really missed seeing and hearing them. They're around in Spokane, but you don't see them much.
After we got settled in our room and hung out with the wolves it was about dinnertime, so we drove about 20 minutes away to Bozeman to get some food. We stopped at a restaurant called Nissa, which I highly recommend if you're ever in the area. We got to have fresh French food with some herbal mocktails that tasted amazing. Will and I shared a croque monsieur and some Guinness beef stew that was probably one of the best things I've eaten all year.
We headed back and spent the rest of the evening relaxing in our room, listening to the wolves howl outside once it got dark. That was a really cool experience since I've never heard wolves howl in real life before.
The next day was pretty freeform. We started out by eating breakfast at the inn and taking a walk along the edge of the wolf enclosure. They followed us around and it was so cool to watch them interact with eachother and hunt small animals in the bushes.
Next, we checked out the Montana Grizzly Experience a few minutes away and watched a short presentation about Max, one of their bears. He was hilarious and spent the entire talk bobbing a large ball in his pool. I've also never seen a grizzly that close before, and it was a little alarming how low the fence was given that this was a 1300 pound animal, but the keepers seemed to know what they were doing (and the fence was apparently more than sufficient to keep him in his enclosure.)
From the museum, we walked around downtown Bozeman to just explore the shops and experience the town. It was way nicer and more cultured than we expected, with a lot of independent art shops, cute indie restaurants, and other fun stuff. The demographic of people there was weird, though - almost every single person we came across was wearing some combination of cowboy hat, fur coat, and denim-everything.
We went to the Great Rocky Mountain Toy Company (I've been on a plushie collecting bender lately, so I always have to stop in the toy stores where ever I go to see what they have) and I was delighted to find two of my Douglas ISOs! (Frankie Fox and Rambler Coyote.) I also found a Needoh, which I've been hearing a lot about but wasn't going to pay exorbitant reseller prices for - but this shop had them for $5, so I thought I'd see what the fuss was about. Next we found a small bookstore where I managed to find two editions of The Prince that I didn't already have! I was not expecting this trip to be so fruitful for my various weird collections, but I am not complaining lmao.
We've been needing a vacation in the worst way and this was the perfect weekend trip. Howler's is a B&B and also a sanctuary for captivity-bred wolves who can't be released into the wild. As you're all probably aware, I am a wolf freak lmao.
We left Spokane and traveled through the Idaho panhandle across to Montana. The scenery on this drive is always fantastic, but it's pretty hard to get pictures of. Our first stop was at 50,000 Silver Dollar Inn. If you've never been... I don't know if I can really describe it. You'll just have to look up some pictures. We did find Excalibur there though, so that was something.
We stopped for lunch in Missoula, at a little Irish pub called the Stone of Accord. My boss used to live there and recommended it to us, and it was pretty good! We had beef pasties and potato crusted cheese curds.
We got to the inn right at check in time, so it worked out perfectly. The building and our room were gorgeous, and there was a great big tub and windows that overlooked both wolf enclosures. There were five wolves - Kiowa and Raven, a female and male, lived in one half of the enclosure, and Koa, Shilo and Shasta, two males and a female, lived on the other side. Kiowa was my bestie and RAN up to the fence to greet me every time I went to the enclosure, I even got to give her scratches and get kisses from her through the fence.
The wolves were bred in captivity for various sanctuaries, zoos, or private owners, and wound up at the sanctuary because they couldn't be cared for anymore. They're obviously well taken of (a couple of them are even a tiny bit pudgy lol) and clearly get a lot of enrichment playing with eachother and even hunting inside their enclosure. (Tw ahead for animal death circle of life stuff) We watched Shilo dig up a small rodent and eat it right in front of us, and Raven caught a magpie that got a liiiittle too close to his food. The magpie was less fun to see since I love them and they're my favorite bird, but unfortunately that is the way nature goes. It was nice to see that even in captivity these wolves get to experience the enrichment of hunting animals that naturally come into their enclosure, just like they would in the wild. (The amount of fur in the enclosure also tells me there have been a decent number of very unlucky bunnies. Rip.)
Speaking of magpies, they were EVERYWHERE in the area. We couldn't be outside for more than 2 minutes without seeing one. It was like that when I lived in Colorado, too, and I really missed seeing and hearing them. They're around in Spokane, but you don't see them much.
After we got settled in our room and hung out with the wolves it was about dinnertime, so we drove about 20 minutes away to Bozeman to get some food. We stopped at a restaurant called Nissa, which I highly recommend if you're ever in the area. We got to have fresh French food with some herbal mocktails that tasted amazing. Will and I shared a croque monsieur and some Guinness beef stew that was probably one of the best things I've eaten all year.
We headed back and spent the rest of the evening relaxing in our room, listening to the wolves howl outside once it got dark. That was a really cool experience since I've never heard wolves howl in real life before.
The next day was pretty freeform. We started out by eating breakfast at the inn and taking a walk along the edge of the wolf enclosure. They followed us around and it was so cool to watch them interact with eachother and hunt small animals in the bushes.
Next, we checked out the Montana Grizzly Experience a few minutes away and watched a short presentation about Max, one of their bears. He was hilarious and spent the entire talk bobbing a large ball in his pool. I've also never seen a grizzly that close before, and it was a little alarming how low the fence was given that this was a 1300 pound animal, but the keepers seemed to know what they were doing (and the fence was apparently more than sufficient to keep him in his enclosure.)
We went to the Museum of the Rockies next and got to see tons of dinosaur skeletons and other fossils, which was really cool. I'm not as interested in dinosaurs lately, but they were my main special interest back when I was a little kid and it was fun to see what random facts I still remembered that I got to share with Will.
We also saw a dino skeleton named Big Al, which I got a kick out of.
We also saw a dino skeleton named Big Al, which I got a kick out of.
From the museum, we walked around downtown Bozeman to just explore the shops and experience the town. It was way nicer and more cultured than we expected, with a lot of independent art shops, cute indie restaurants, and other fun stuff. The demographic of people there was weird, though - almost every single person we came across was wearing some combination of cowboy hat, fur coat, and denim-everything.
We went to the Great Rocky Mountain Toy Company (I've been on a plushie collecting bender lately, so I always have to stop in the toy stores where ever I go to see what they have) and I was delighted to find two of my Douglas ISOs! (Frankie Fox and Rambler Coyote.) I also found a Needoh, which I've been hearing a lot about but wasn't going to pay exorbitant reseller prices for - but this shop had them for $5, so I thought I'd see what the fuss was about. Next we found a small bookstore where I managed to find two editions of The Prince that I didn't already have! I was not expecting this trip to be so fruitful for my various weird collections, but I am not complaining lmao.
We went to the Montana Ale House for dinner and had bison meatloaf, which was really good. By this time it was only about 5pm (we got a very early start, since home is in an earlier time zone) so we had loads of time to just sit and chill with the wolves when we got back to the inn.
All in all it was a fun weekend! I'm definitely looking forward to going back at some point, maybe with the rest of our gang.
All in all it was a fun weekend! I'm definitely looking forward to going back at some point, maybe with the rest of our gang.
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Date: Monday, May 4th, 2026 12:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Monday, May 4th, 2026 03:23 am (UTC)That B&B sounds so cool. I love that Kiowa was so social with you, that's adorable. 🥰
It sounds like there's as many magpies there as there are up here. Sad about the one that got hunted, but like you said, that's the way nature is.
I looked at the image of your collection finds before reading the paragraph and let out a dumb chuckle when I saw not one, but TWO versions of The Prince.
I'm so glad to hear that you had a great time—you've needed this so bad!