While my mom was visiting, we drove to Yellowstone National Park. On our way there we stopped at Ringing Rocks. This is in Butte, Montana which is about an hour away and many people recommended that we stop there. For those interested in going to Ringing Rocks, make sure you have good clearance for your vehicle or good shoes. My Colorado got through fine, but just a heads up it is rough.
We walked around and started hitting rocks with hammers! There are hammers provided for you, but you can bring your own.
It was so neat! We had an awesome time and it made a perfect stop on our drive.
Horseback Riding
After Yellowstone, we had reservations for horseback riding! My mom arrived with a list of various things she would be interested in while visiting and one of them was horseback riding. A lot of places were closed, but we found one near Yellowstone. Of course, the weather was not in our favor that day and there was a huge snow storm. We drove up to Jake's Horses Inc and asked if our reservation was still good, they were shocked we pulled up. They said, "We figured everyone would cancel, so give us an hour and a half and we should be ready!". Glad we stopped there and made sure, or else who knows what would've happened.
While we waited, we headed over to Big Sky to eat and check out what was there.
We decided to eat at Choppers Grub & Pub. Everything was delicious!
We walked around a couple shops near by and then headed back to Jake's Horses Inc.. My mom and Aaron have both been horseback riding, but I had never been. I was somewhat scared after they told us how dangerous it is to horseback ride in the snow. There was a group that was also scheduled with us which was a mom and her 3 children. The mother was next to me while I was waiting for them to get my horse and her and I were saying how nervous we were.
Soon after we all were on our horses, the mother of the other group was very startled because her horse slipped while we were on our way to the trail. Her and her daughter ended up turning back and the rest of us headed out!
Due to the weather they did not take us on their usual route for safety reasons, but we loved the trail we went on. It was beautiful!
Sphyx was the name of my horse and a rescue who is startled by zippers. Mom's horse was Diamond and Aaron's we can not remember the name of, but she was always taking Aaron off the trail for food. Our guide was a real Cowboy! He has since stopped and started working at Jake's Horses Inc, but it was so neat to hear his stories. When we left we saw big horn sheep!
Hot Springs
On my mom's last day in Helena, we headed over to the Broadwater Hot Springs & Fitness Center that is only 10 minutes from our house. You do have to get a 'membership' to go here and you do that prior to arrival on their website. We found out they have to do this because of the system they use. Your membership is good for a year and it does not renew on its own. Once you get to the Hot Springs, you pay a daily fee to enter which is cheaper during the week than the weekend.
They do not serve liquor, but they have beer and wine. The servers can deliver to certain pools, but you can not eat while in the hot springs. The Huckleberry Boneless Wings are amazing!!! On Tuesday nights we learned they have a band and they play right next to the pools. When we read reviews there were a ton saying that children were running around making this experience not relaxing and other ones saying the staff were not friendly. We had a great experience here and the staff were very friendly!
These are just a few things we did while my mom was here! We had such a fun time in the week she was visiting!
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