Land Acknowledgement: This is the land of the Ktunaxa ɁamakɁis and Salish people. They were stewards of this land from time immemorial. Click the links above to learn more about these native people.

From Glacier we headed south to Missoula, MT and arrived at our cute AirBnB around 3:00 after a quick stop at the grocery store to buy some staples. The first thing on our agenda was....laundry! Six days camping meant we were overdue for some clean clothes. Thankfully the AirBnB had a washer and dryer in the unit so we took FULL advantage of that! The second item on our agenda was...showers! Six days camping and hiking meant we were all smelling a little funky :) The rest of the day was spent relaxing and getting caught up on emails and other things we had missed while galivanting in the woods. At about 6:00 Kyle read online that the River City Roots Music Festival was happening that night in downtown Missoula so we mustered up enough energy to check it out. After finding a perfect spot to park (when does that happen?!) we made our way through food trucks, vendors, and a giant stage all in the middle of Main Street. It was a fun and boisterous atmosphere and we stayed to hear a bit of the band, The Hillbenders (a very energetic and talented bluegrass/rock n' roll band). Before we headed out we grabbed some ice cream at Sweet Peaks, a local Montana ice cream shop, and booked it home to dinner and a glorious BED!

The next morning was spent continuing to do laundry (So. much. laundry!). After lunch we headed out to the town. We hit Caras Park, which is right on the riverfront. We rode to carousel there, but never managed to grab that elusive gold ring (to get a free ride). We then took a long scooter/walk along the river and through University of Montana. It was a glorious day and we made it back home for dinner and all fell asleep early.

Our final day in Missoula was the kid's first official day of Road School! Kyle had a whole day of work to do, so we filled it with map studying, website writing, some math review and reading. After lunch the kids and I headed to the Montana Museum of Natural History. It was small, but kept the kids attention for an hour (lots of fun taxidermy) and we learned a lot about the area. On the way back from the museum we stumbled upon a Little Free Library and scored a few great kids books (DogMan, Animorphs and Mermaids). The kids have lots of books on their tablets, but there's nothing like turning the actual pages! Not having a library to go check out books has been tricky, but the Little Free Libraries may just be the ticket!

Next morning we packed up and headed out of Missoula. We stopped at Wheat Montana for a yummy lunch and baked goods before heading to Garnet Ghost Town and Bozeman, MT.