エピソード16：モンタナ・マイルズ｜グレイシャーからバージニアシティへの風光明媚なドライブ

エピソード16：モンタナ・マイルズ｜グレイシャーからバージニアシティへの風光明媚なドライブ

Welcome back to the Cactus Atlas. If you’ve been following our 2025
Northern Tour, you know we fell in love with Glacier. Greenery
like nothing we’ve seen before. Winding roads. Tall, awe inspiring peaks. Snow even. But we have to move on. And once again, we might have filmed
just a bit too much. So rather than make a two hour video,
we’re breaking this one up over the next couple of days. We think you’ll see why. All right. I normally do these things outdoors. You saw some clips of my campsite,
I believe, and it is all, vacated. All packed up. It is almost an hour before ahead of schedule. At 7:11 a.m.. My departure time is 8 a.m. every day. I give myself plenty of time to get ready
if I need it. So things are looking good. Let’s consult our black book of itinerary. All right,
let’s check our itinerary for today. Today is August the 1st of 2025. We’re leaving Apgar Campground
and you can see the town we’re going to. I give it away right here. Virginia City, Montana and Nevada City,
technically, Nevada City first. And I’m actually
staying in a hotel tonight. I broke up my trip a little bit. I have a hotel stay tonight. Very cheap local hotel. Like a boutique hotel in town. And I was surprised at how inexpensive some of these hotel stays are, as well as, that’s about it, I guess. No, having to set up camp for once. So I get a little bit of a break
and a hot shower tonight and some privacy. But you can see we have a 5.5 hour commute to get to Nevada City,
so I don’t really have any stops planned in between here and there, although I will capture some road footage
and I will stop. I saw a lot of historic markers
on the way up here, so maybe I can hit 1 or 2 of those
and we can see what they’re about. But we got a little extra time
because we’re leaving early. But I do want to top off my fuel tank. I have a, probably about more
than three quarters of a tank, but I know there’s not a lot in between here
and there, so. And then maybe some coffee somewhere. All right. We’re leaving Apgar Campground. You can kind of get a… We’ll do a drive through here.
You can see for yourself. I’m on Loop B, so one way loop. Haven’t seen any bears yet on the trip. We still have plenty of, areas though to go
that have lots of bears. So we’re going to be in bear country
for probably another week. We’ve got so many epic locations left on this trip, it’s I don’t even know. I just kind of
in the middle of it right now and not really thinking about anything
other than the moment. Thinking about it day by day,
what I gotta do to achieve my goals. And I’ve been on top of it. Like, without exception,
I would say the whole time, knocking it out every single day, doing
what I’m supposed to be doing. I’m proud of of this. And I’m surprised, like, you know how much energy and how much how energized
and how into it I actually am. All things considered. So been a really good trip so far. So the the overall plan
today is mainly just drive. But on the way up here,
I didn’t really record a lot of road footage
because the day I drove up here, it rained kind of in the middle,
like for a couple hours, passed through like a weather system
to get up here. So really couldn’t record the road footage
and just drove. And there are some beautiful spots
in Montana. I tell you what, like the very scenic
drive, almost the whole way. So I’m hoping I get some of it on the
way down to Virginia and Nevada City. But just like the Bannack day, I fear I have a lot
I want to film and want to film, so meaning this could be a long one. And if you like long ones,
then you’re in for a treat. Probably. If you don’t like long ones
then you’re in the wrong place. I hate to tell you that. All right. These. These are our last moments in Glacier
National Park. I don’t know when the next time
I’ll be able to come up here is. But I hope if I’m healthy and one day have more leisure time, I’d love
to come up here with my wife, Amy. Is it here? I wasn’t really paying
attention to where to go. I wasn’t looking at the signs. Yeah, I think it’s this way. So I’d like to come up here with my wife, Amy, and all the places
I get to go that she never gets to see. She’s. She’s always seeing them from the editor’s
chair. Which she, she says she enjoys. But I would rather, you know, one day
be able to travel and take vacations and not film at all
and just go places like I used to with with others to enjoy it. You know? And I think I’ve said it before,
I think one I was I’ve been analyzing why I like to film and talk to myself,
essentially while I’m traveling. And I think it’s simple. I travel alone
and I do like the aloneness. I mean, I’ve talked about that before. I do cherish that. But. The filming, I think is to you know, to compensate
for not having someone to talk to. So it all works out, I guess,
because you guys are my companions on these videos, and I try to make it
feel like that for you. And in these, you know, really politically charged times,
these emotional times for everybody. I don’t care
what side of politics you’re on. I think everybody needs a break
sometimes, right? I think that’s one thing
everybody can agree on. Hopefully. And, if that’s true, really what I’m trying to do
is make this a place for anyone that just needs
to, tap out for a little bit. Get away from it all, get away
from the doomscrolling, the short format rot your brain social media stuff
and then present an alternative. Just a very the opposite
a protest against short format, almost making
super long format, super long winded sit alongside me and travel videos. So when you get home from a stressful
day of work or you’re tired of TikTok and Instagram that I give you a home,
a place to go, or you’re welcome and you can take your mind off of it
for just a little while. And. And if I can achieve that
for at least one other person, I feel like I’ve done something good. Did I tell you I’m excited
not to have to set up a tent tonight? Although I’ve gotten so proficient
at that. I mean, I’ve done it so many,
countless times already. You guys that have been watching the show
know how much I’ve camped in this tent. It’s a quality product, this REI tent. I think the Base Camp 4 is the product. I don’t know if they make
that particular model anymore. If they do, I should review it and there’s
no better person to review that. I’m telling you, I don’t know. I’ve lost count of how many nights
I’ve slept in that. Probably… I’m going, I guess I’m in the months of time,
slept in that particular tent. It’s not a buy it and then break it out
every once every couple of years on the family
camping trip time type of tent. It is my home away from home and we should honor it now with some, you know, a montage. Of all of the times I’ve used it. I’m going to try to make
a concerted effort on these upcoming weeks to actually make food at the campground. My breakfasts. I have granola, breakfast I have dehydrated stuff
like biscuits and gravy, coffee. And they’re quite good too. I’ve had them before,
so I really need to work on those. But every morning I get up,
I get all like, yeah, let’s, let’s get ahead of schedule,
let’s get there early. So I have time later and then I start skipping this and that,
and then I buy a breakfast burrito. That’s the only place, I think if I had to
critique my performance on this trip, it would be there. I think I could have saved a few bucks not buying like gas station
coffees and a couple burritos. I’ve been spending some tourist dollars
at Maverik Adventure Stop gas stations. I never had a brand loyalty
to a gas station chain before, but I if I, I guess I could say
I have one to Maverik. They’re just so clean
like I’ve never been in a dirty one ever. The bathrooms are always clean every time. I’ve eaten so many of their burritos,
and they have some really good ones. They’re… you know, they usually
are the ones that they kind of sit under the heat lamp, but they have
somebody working behind the counter. So I’ve never had one
that felt like it was sitting out too long at all, they always feel
fresh to me or taste fresh, and they have self-checkout, which I know sounds kind of small,
but I like self-checkout. I don’t like to wait in line and, little touches like that. Maverik. I think we’ll probably pass
1 or 2 today, but I’ll probably plug ‘em when I get there cuz
I I’ll be your sponsor, Maverik. You want an adventurer to be your sponsor? The face of Maverik, the burrito eater? That’s me. If you’re, wanting to come up here
and you’re not wanting the camp, you can’t get a reservation
inside the park, which is highly possible. Unfortunately. This town, I want to say this is Hungry
Horse, the town, and then up the road
a little bit further is Columbia Falls. And then right after that, Whitefish
kind of all in secession and they’re all wonderful looking places
and they’re chock full of accommodations. So and I don’t think
you’d go wrong with any of them. And if you want like access to restaurants and grocery stores and gas stations
and auto parts stores and pretty much anything, any convenience
you can find anywhere else, I would say Columbia Falls and Whitefish seem to be
the two and then Hungry Horse here has got a lot, but it’s more kind of like
the outside the National park, touristy, like mom and pop kind of businesses. And then the further you go, more
commercial, more big name type of store. So I guess depending on your taste
and your desire, you’ve got whatever. So I think there’s something for everybody
in this area. Man, I’m gonna film
more than I thought leaving here
just because it’s so fantastic. I mean, look at these mountains. Kind of contrasting it with Glacier,
where I just was. You don’t have the really rocky,
craggy peaks here. They’re more gentle, like, rolling,
but big, but covered in pine trees. So if you haven’t, if you want to see
more of me driving around forest roads in the back country of Montana,
go back a couple of weeks in our catalog. And I released I camped out here basically in the Flathead
National Forest and fell in love. And I hope to be back. I hope I could see this area becoming like not inside
Glacier National Park. It’s beautiful in there too, but, I’m just not a national park guy
as much as I used to be. I’m a more of a national forest, get out away from the crowds kind of guy now. Don’t get me wrong, national parks are why they are
what they are for a reason. And they are. I know you’re not going to beat
the scenery, but it’s just crowded. That’s all. There is this little pull through
espresso coffee. They have a lot of those up here. Just drive up. Type of things. I was going to get a shot of it for you,
and it’s called, like, Copper Mountain or something like that. Kind of very similar to the
Cowgirl Coffee business that I went to the other day. What is it called? Copper Mountain? Copper Mountain Coffee is the name of it, right off of, Montana 35. And I got a mocha, a cafe mocha, so I could compare it to what
I got at the Cowgirl Coffee place. I was very impressed with theirs. This smells good. And it was perfect. It’s like right, like at the edge of where it’s
about to become barren and sparse. As you can see immediately. This is probably going to be very much
like what much of the drive is going to be like, with better mountains
and some good scenery along the way. But anyway. We’ll do a taste test here. That’s good. I might have to take a few more sips to make my mind up. This one’s a little bit. I would say the Cowgirl Coffee one was more coffee strong with the coffee and a little bit less with the creaminess, like the, and this one is a little bit
heavier on the creaminess and a little bit like, less
in the boom. And the coffee. But it’s only a couple sips
in, so we’ll see. So I don’t know if they made it more. Put more cream in it
or what they do there. It’s good. It tastes good. It will do the job. I can already tell,
but I like I usually drink coffee black. So that’s who you’re trying to impress. Not usually, I. I don’t usually like cream. I don’t like the way it makes my mouth
feel. You know, the the coating you get the aftertaste. Just… I like my coffee black. All right. I wanted to kind of break that up,
get the coffee talk, the coffee talk out of the way. So now we shall, for real, get some distance going, maybe
check in in the half an hour or something, or think I’m gonna keep an eye out for some of these historic markers
because there are quite a few. And I just blew by them all. And I am curious, like what
some of them are, if I see them, they’re here in Montana. They’ve got like, they give you
pretty good notice if one is coming up. So they do better in this state than many
other states with their historic markers. From what I’ve seen so far. This Arizona guy had to stop because I actually see fog. Now that’s a rare sight for me. I haven’t seen that a long time,
but I think this is Swan Lake. I drove
we drove by this, and I didn’t really, stop. I think this is
part of the Flathead National Forest, but we just get our eyes on our
really quick, take a quick leg stretch. I haven’t been driving too long,
but we’re making good time. Very beautiful. It’s very cool and chilly over here, too. And the lake actually looks pretty deep. This probably is a good place to fish,
although I think I don’t. I do not have a. My estate license
I think was only for a couple days. I didn’t buy it for today,
so I couldn’t fish legally, but. This is what I’ve been looking for. Something like this. I can’t even see
the bottom like far in there. So I bet there’s lake trout in here. And. This would be. I just have a feeling
now’s the time to cast. But I can’t. It’s hard to know how to dress here in, Montana. It’s like I was at the campsite. I had a hoodie on,
and then I started getting hot and sweaty, took it off, and now I’m freezing. It is very chilly out here on this lake
with a breeze coming off of it. And this is a big lake
too. All these lakes up here are just really long and we’ll, we’ll,
look at this end down here. Then we’re going to have to hit the road
again. But. You know, it’s August 1st
and it feels like a November day to me. Overcast, kind of wintry looking and, we’re driving the length of the lake,
so we’ll see more of it. But boy is a chilly. Gosh dang. You know, I need to remember that
every time I pull over and do this, I lose my freaking Google directions. It’s so annoying. Like,
if you have your phone plugged in to like, the Apple CarPlay thing in your car,
and then you turn the car off rather than just have your phone retain
everything, it just wipes it out and then you can’t. Now I don’t have a signal,
so I’m flying blind again. So hopefully we can fix this because it’s like I really need to know where I’m
going. What? Who designed that anyway? Is that a feature of, the phone, or is it GM’s thing? Like, what’s what’s causing that problem? All righty. We got our signal back, so we’re back on line temporarily. Got a signal. I don’t even know where I’m at now,
but it was a long time. But pretty much staying on the same route 83
for a very long time. And I have another 20 miles before
we need to turn onto Montana Scenic Loop route 200. I got just enough signal there to pull up a map
and then lost it again. So. It’s really pretty. There’s just been lake after lake
after lake off to my right. Just a chain of lakes basically out here. And the sun’s coming up over
the mountains. It’s already 9:30 in the morning,
but it feels earlier than that with this lighting. I think we’re starting to get into the kind of the more scenic. Not that it hasn’t been scenic,
but out of the woods a little bit so we can actually see the landscape. There’s
beautiful mountain streams here and rolling hills and mountains,
and it should become more like this the further south
we go from my rememberance. I kind of remember. It’s just like, you know, once
we got past Seeley Lake and Placid Lake, now it’s like turning into a little bit
of a different type of scene here in Montana. It’s more going to be a lot of pine trees
and like rolling hills. But I think the area like where we have been like
in the far north, that strip of the Rocky Mountains, the giant landscapes
are probably over for now. We’re gonna be turning here on Montana’s
scenic Loop 200 now. And everything’s looking good. There is somewhat of a cell phone
signal in this town, too. Yeah, it’s like the landscape starting to transform back to more
of what it was like around Bannack. Like a lot of, like,
yellow grass interspersed with pine trees. Really pretty scenery. But it’s like we went from one zone
into another. And we have to say officially goodbye to the big mountains for now. I’ll be more mountains on our journey,
though. Don’t worry, we ain’t done by a long shot. What is going on here? Are they having a barbecue? My goodness, I feel bad for that guy standing in that dust cloud. But look at that. I love that look of the hills here. It’s beautiful. And we just turned on
to a different route. We’re on 141 now, got about 32 miles to our next turn, which is 12 west. And putting that in my memory,
burning it in there in case I, opt to stop at some point
and lose my connectivity again. But yeah, you can see like the further south we go, it’s
just it’s starting to get more farmland. The open spaces, distant mountains. It’s still a beautiful scene,
a different type of scene, but a beautiful scene nonetheless. And I did actually see
a lot of these historic stops on the way. I may have you may have seen a couple. So I said I was going to stop,
but then I noticed that some of them actually don’t have
there’s a couple that didn’t have any. Like it said, there is something there,
but there wasn’t. So I don’t know, I think I might have to retract
what I said a little bit earlier about that was here in Montana. But to me now it’s almost like the landscape’s starting to resemble
more of what I saw in Idaho. With the land of Napoleon Dynamite. Very pretty out here in this area. Say that about every place, don’t I? But I, like I remember this valley for some reason
specifically driving in here. And it’s just strikes a chord,
a special chord in me for some reason. Maybe I was here in a past life. So I’ve been, I think, a lot
about farming for some reason, like I as I drive by farms on my travels
like this. I love studying the equipment and trying to understand,
like these giant sprinklers on wheels. Like, you know, the how they work. But it’s almost like I’m fantasizing about farm life, and I always try to make it a point. I’m sure it’s not an easy life at all. I’m sure when you’re in the thick of it,
it’s a different thing. But at the same time, it’s just something calls to me about it. I come from a farming family, so maybe it’s in my DNA somehow, but what I, what I’m really interested in knowing is like in terms of profitability,
if there are any farmers out there or ranchers watching this, always and preferring to take kind of the lone wolf approach
in life with my wife just keeping things small, I’m not doing some huge,
gigantic thing where I have to employ, you know, tons of workers. What are good crops like, what are what’s the profitable way
to live or a way to, you know, make a living farming
where two people could do it? Like what kind of crop? And with modern technology,
is it possible? Like how? At some point this it’s going to scale
just like software that I know to the point where you need help. You just can’t do it
all on your on your own. So that’s always one thing that I would like to know more about
when it comes to farming. It’s like I want a farm, but I want
I want it big enough where I can manage it myself, or just very small scale in terms of staffing needs, but but a big enough to make a living doing it,
a comfortable enough living where I don’t worry about money. I don’t know if that’s just dreaming. Something that I ponder a lot as I drive through these these regions. It’s probably starts with choosing the right type of crops. And maybe specializing in something. So that’s one thing. And then the other thing that I know
is maybe a challenge is, okay, let’s say
one day I bought land or whatever. I think you have to worry about water,
especially where I’m from in the desert, like water rights
and all that kind of stuff. And it’s like if you’re in a region where there are lots of farms. I always wondered, like, how do you monitor who’s sucking up like the water? And how do you make sure it’s fair and you’re getting your share
and all of that kind of stuff? Maybe that’s not as much of a concern
in areas like this
where water seems to be more plentiful. There’s like seems to be a stream
or a lake or a pond virtually anywhere you look. But that’s another thing
that I think about. Maybe I’m thinking about it
in the context of a southern Arizona kind of farming community. But in an age of drought
and all of that, I’m sure that’s just got to be a huge stress
because you can’t control the weather. Really. But everybody’s subject to that. But I’m guessing you’re at higher risk
depending on what region you are in. But like see like that. Like you see all those rolled up
hay bales that they they do I mean, that’s not done by hand
and mules and stuff like that today. Right. It’s like you’ll have tractors
and powered equipment, like how many people do you need to do that job
to do what you see in that field there. Could that could that be a one man job with the right equipment,
or am I dreaming? So someone comment, let me know. I want to learn more about that. Probably just need to dig in and do research
one day and get to the bottom of it. All right. I think we’re about to get
on the interstate. Interstate 90. And we drove through
that really beautiful scenic area. I think I filmed most a lot of,
you know, intermittent parts coming up 90 on the way up there. So we got a lot more to do today. So I’m gonna just take the GoPro
off the roof before I get on the interstate,
which I oftentimes like to do. And I’m gonna just not record
until we get really close to our destination, actually,
so we can focus on the Old West. Welcome to Virginia City and Nevada City. And this is where we will leave you today. But tune in tomorrow
for a tour of Nevada City where there is
honestly more than meets the eye.

Rolling south from Glacier through Montana’s valleys and riversides — a peaceful ride filled with winding roads, big skies, and quiet beauty on the way to Virginia City. 🌾🚗

After several days exploring the beauty of Glacier National Park, we turn south — trading the jagged peaks and alpine forests for the long, open stretches of Montana backroads. This leg of the journey is quieter, more reflective, and captures the kind of peaceful rhythm that only a long drive through the West can offer.

Our route winds through valleys lined with golden grass and follows rivers that glint in the sunlight. Every curve of the road reveals another postcard-perfect view — farmland dotted with weathered barns, cottonwoods shimmering in the breeze, and mountains fading into the horizon.

There’s a sense of calm in this episode — a simple appreciation for motion, for the sound of tires on dirt, and the small towns that pass by almost unnoticed. Sometimes, road trips aren’t about the destinations or the landmarks — they’re about these moments in between, when you can just sit back, watch the scenery roll past, and breathe.

By day’s end, we find ourselves nearing Virginia City, Montana — ready to explore another piece of the state’s fascinating past.

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VIDEO FILMED: 08/01/2025

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Welcome to the Cactus Atlas! We are Glenn and Amy and invite you to join us as we visit all sorts of locations across the American West. We tour both natural and man-made attractions.

Our base of operations is in the Phoenix, AZ area. We do a lot of hiking, day trips, and campground reviews and hope that we will be a great resource if you are planning a trip to the American West. We also hope to delight you with our exciting adventures!