Last Days in Montana

I couldn't leave Montana without getting a few more stamps in my Passport. This led me to Deer Lodge, home of the Grant-Kohrs ranch and also the fanciest Pizza Hut I have ever seen. 

And then I stumbled on Phillipsburg... This is a town I would love to come back to! There were so many things to do. One of my favorite parts of the trip was Gem Mountain, where you pay $20 for a bucket of dirt and they teach you how to look for sapphires. This process was oddly addicting. Also, slow. They told me it takes most people 30-45 minutes to get through a bucket. It took me 2.5 hours. I was being thorough!

I didn't find too many, but I'm excited to give them to Rachel for her birthday. (She makes jewelry.)

Phillipsburg also has a nearby ghost town to explore:

And some pretty waterfalls:

And the biggest candy store I've ever seen. I wanted to get some black licorice for my mom, and this was the licorice section:

This was all I bought for myself. And that, friends, is called self control.

My last stop in Montana was Big Hole Battlefield, where the Nez Perce were ambushed by the a-holes in the U.S. army. As I visit more and more of these sites, this has become a recurring theme. If you walk around the battlefield, you can supposedly still hear women crying. I went to check it out, and within 5 minutes of hiking the trail I had a splitting headache. I left, and a few minutes after driving away I felt totally fine. Interesting.

I was so sad to leave Montana, but I had to get to a Discount Tire since my tires were literally falling apart.