Highlights

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• Customizable Comps
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Whatever you want, U S Tours will be happy to structure tour prices to match your needs.  Just let us know!

Itinerary

Day 1 – West Yellowstone, MT – Grizzly Discovery Center

Arrive today in West Yellowstone, MT where you enjoy a two-night stay.

Visit the Grizzly Discovery Center to watch bears and wolves in their natural environments. The Center offers every visitor to Yellowstone a chance to uniquely experience the world of grizzly bears and gray wolves. All the animals at the Grizzly & Wolf Discover Center are unable to survive in the wild and serve as ambassadors for their wild counterparts.  Before departing you will view an IMAX movie about Yellowstone.

Dinner is included this evening at a local restaurant. (D)

Day 2 – Full Day in Yellowstone National Park

Today, enjoy a full day tour of Yellowstone National Park. The world’s first national park is a wonderland of natural beauty and geologic oddities that has delighted visitors over 100 years.  It is a mysterious land of steaming geysers, fumaroles and bubbling mud pots.  A land so amazing that the first explorers to bring back tales of Yellowstone were called liars.

Today you will visit the centerpiece of the park, Old Faithful!  There will be plenty of time to explore the area, witness an eruption of the world’s most famous geyser and have lunch on your own.  After enjoying Old Faithful, explore more of the geyser basins including Midway Geyser Basin and Fountain Paint Pots. After some free time to explore Old Faithful Village on your own, travel along the beautiful Madison River as you return to West Yellowstone. Dinner is on own this evening. (B)

Day 3 – Lewis & Clark Caverns – Free Time in Butte, MT – Missoula, MT – Smokejumper Aerial Fire Depot

Departing West Yellowstone this morning after breakfast, stop in Whitehall, MT at Lewis & Clark Caverns State Park.  Discovered in 1892 buy local hunters, these limestone caverns became Montana’s first and best-known state park featuring one of the most decorated limestone caverns in the Northwest.  Naturally air conditioned, these spectacular caves lined with stalactites, stalagmites, columns, and helictites are electrically lighted and safe to visit.

Next, stop on Butte, MT for free time and lunch on your own.   One of the biggest cities in the Rocky Mountains in the late 1800s and early 1900s due to one of the largest copper booms in the West, Butte sits at nearly 6,000 feet in elevation. History, personality and charm are part of the walkable “uptown” district, and it’s the perfect place to stop and eat lunch. Local favorites include a Wop Chop or a pasty (pronounced pass-tee).

Afternoon travel continues to Missoula, MT, the cultural hub of Montana. On arrival enjoy a visit to the Smokejumper Aerial Fire Depot, home to the largest smokejumper base in the country. The Smokejumper Visitor Center provides a unique and interactive opportunity to learn about this demanding and important occupation.

Tour of the facility includes a visit to the Smokejumper loft, the ready room, and the National Smokejumper memorial. There is also a gift shop and museum, which includes a fire lookout tower originally built in 1930. During the summer, Smokejumper aircraft are also present, and visitors may even see Smokejumpers dispatched to a fire.

Then check into your local hotel for a two-night stay.  Dinner is included this evening at a local restaurant. (B,D)

Day 4 – Full Day Guided Tour of “Yellowstone” TV Sites – Dinner at The Montana Club

Today, you enjoy a Full Day Tour of the film sites from the hit show “Yellowstone.”  Your tour offers a glimpse of the country where John Dutton and his—shall we say, complicated—family live here in Western Montana’s Glacier Country.

Enjoy narration today by a local guide as you visit filming sites and other local attractions featured on the show. Start the day in Darby, MT, where you see Chief Joseph Ranch. This is the site of the Yellowstone Ranch, home of the Dutton family. The ranch is not accessible for tours and the driveway has a gated entrance, often with a guard in place (when filming). But, you stop for a photo of the Yellowstone Ranch sign and the white barns are visible from the highway.

Then stop at the Double H Custom Hat Company and get a custom cowboy hat by Jimmy “the hat man.” What could be more fitting on your “Yellowstone” quest?  Downtown Darby also features local antique shops and an old-fashioned candy store.

Next stop is downtown Hamilton, MT, at 163 S. 2^nd Street.  Scenes from season four include protests outside the Montana Livestock Association where Kayce Dutton is the commissioner. Downtown Hamilton is also a great place to enjoy some free time and lunch on own.

Then make a stop at Hidden Legend Winery for a tour and tasting. Stop in and taste the sweetness of mead, a wine made from fermented honey. On a tour of the winery, you’ll be able to see mead made from start to finish with 100 percent local Montana honey and berries.

You also make a stop in nearby Florence at Glen’s Café (known for its delicious pies!) where John Dutton buys a steak dinner for his arch nemesis Garrett (Jamie’s real dad).

Returning to Missoula, see the Community Medical Center where John Dutton recovers at the beginning of season four after being shot in the cliffhanger of season three. Ruby’s Café, located at 2101 Regent Street in Missoula, is home to the unforgettable shoot-out scene where Rip pulls the bad guy through the window, but not in time to save Sheriff Donnie Haskell.

The intersection of Railroad and Woody Street in downtown Missoula is where Summer holds the anti-farming protest that takes place outside of the Livestock Association’s “Livingston” Field Office and John Dutton comes to intervene.  The trial of Summer is held in the beautiful Missoula County Courthouse in downtown Missoula. Across the street from the courthouse is the Garlington (GLR) Building and home to Jamie’s Attorney General Office and the Market Equities Offices.

End the day with dinner at The Montana Club Restaurant.  Missoula’s best local restaurant! Enjoy steakhouse steaks, prime rib, seafood, burgers (all Montana raised), salads, regional microbrews and cocktails in a lodge-style atmosphere. (B,D)

Day 5 – Ninepipes Museum of Early Montana  – Flathead Lake Cruise – Kalispell, MT – Free Time on Main Street – Dinner at Lonesome Dove Ranch 

Departing Missoula this morning, stop in Charlo, MT at the Ninepipes Museum of Early Montana.  The Museum honors the history and culture of the Flathead Indian Reservation and early Montana with four rooms of artifacts, historical photographs, a selection of stunning beadwork, guns, bows and arrows and a diorama room filled with mounted wildlife and an Indian camp circa 1880. Also on the property is an approximately one-eighth mile long nature trail with a spectacular view of the Mission Mountains.

After a stop for lunch on own, you arrive at Flathead Lake for a sightseeing cruise.  Flathead Lake is the largest natural freshwater lake west of the Mississippi in the lower 48 states, with over 200 square miles of water and 185 miles of shoreline. The southern half of Flathead Lake is within the boundary of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes Flathead Reservation.

Travel continues to Kalispell, MT where you enjoy some free time on Main Street.  Steeped in history and filled with locally owned shops and boutiques, restaurants, art galleries and more, downtown Kalispell beautifully combines touches from the past with modern offerings in a charming setting.  A must-see is Western Outdoor, located underneath what used to be an opera house that dates back to 1896. Step inside the shop and you’ll be welcomed by more than 2,500 boots and 1,500 hats, as well as all the western-inspired attire you can get your hands on.  Then check into your local for a two-night stay.

Dinner is included tonight at the Lonesome Dove Guest Ranch. The Ranch is home to numerous breeds of horses, bison, long horn cattle plus natural wildlife galore. First, you will enjoy a guided escort on horseback with the American and Montana flags upon arrival.  Group can then take photos with the horses and wranglers.  Then enjoy a Country gourmet dinner, and warm western hospitality at this a one-of-a-kind ranch. (B,D)

Day 6 – Full Day in Glacier National Park

Today, enjoy a full day in Glacier National Park with a local guide.  Established as a National Park in 1910, it is a land of mountain ranges carved by prehistoric ice rivers. It features alpine meadows, deep forests, waterfalls, 25 glistening glaciers and 200 sparkling lakes. The vistas are breathtaking and the wildlife is abundant – it’s a photographer’s paradise.

One could say this park was built for the railroads. Who once they became trans-continental helped influence the construction of National Park Lodges to increase ridership.  Once there was a hotel, they began to enhance the experience and the desire of tourists to visit.  Going-to-the-Sun-Road, is a 50-mile engineering marvel that is one of the most scenic highways in the world.  The park bought canvas-topped buses (so you can see the eagles soaring above) and painted them red – thus their nickname “Reds.”  With a shortage of driver trained guides, the park then hired Native Americans and taught them to operate vehicles with a standard transmission drive.  The drivers quickly earned the nickname “Jammers.”

Your touring will be onboard a “Red” with a “Jammer” at the wheel and will climb over the Continental Divide at Logan Pass (6.646 feet). You will make many photo stops once in the interior of the Park at many of the most popular spots with names like the Iron Teepee’s, Wild Goose Island, and Jackson Glacier. You’d be hard pressed to find a more scenic drive in the lower continental United States than the Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier National Park. Lunch is included today while in the park.

Following a day at Glacier, return to the hotel to freshen up and enjoy dinner on own. (B,L,D)

Day 7 – Depart for Home

After breakfast, depart for home. (B)