Our Impressions of Bozeman

During the week we were in Bozeman it was homecoming! All 9,000 Montana State University students had descended on the city! To say it was chaos is an understatement! Restaurants were full. Sidewalks and streets were packed! Because of this we probably don’t have a fair assessment of Bozeman.

We chose to spend our time in this area driving around and seeing other sites. Not a bad way to spend time in the Bozeman area.

Our experience in Bozeman was probably also diminished by one of the first truly rude people we had met in traveling. When we were leaving Bozeman, we pulled into a gas station. With the motorhome and the Jeep, we took up two pumps. One fuel pump was dedicated to filling up the RV, the other pump was filling up the Jeep we were towing. Out of the blue, a man filling up his car on the other side of the pumps told us in a very snarky, rude manner, “Why don’t you go back to Maine, dude?” Certainly, this one man does not represent all of Montana or Bozeman specifically, but it certainly was a surprise. And a disappointment.

Side Note: Probably the most positive experience we had in Bozeman involved our 14.5-year-old cat, Lucky. I am not sure how “positive” it was for HIM! Lucky had been pawing at his left ear which means he has an ear infection, a reoccurring thing for him. Usually finding a veterinarian on the road means going to an emergency vet. Most vets with an office do not want to see a pet just one time. I decided to call a vet in Bozeman, and the receptionist gave us an appointment for the same day! Thank you to the Gallatin Veterinary Hospital for your courtesy and professionalism.

Attractions

American Computer and Robotics Museum is fascinating! It is definitely something not to be missed! It is a small museum jam packed with artifacts of anything computers, communications, robotics, automation and artificial intelligence. Every exhibit is dedicated to the Information Age and the progress that has been made in technology throughout time. The museum chronicles advancements from typewriters to room-sized computers to smartphones. Exhibits include the Apollo Guidance Computer, a vintage computing system on loan from NASA, and the Enigma cipher machine used by codebreakers during World War II.

We really wanted to visit Palisade Falls. All the locals we talked to said it was something we MUST see. Sadly, we drove 55 minutes from Bozeman to find a sign at the entrance of the falls saying “Palisade Falls is closed due to construction”. Argh!!!! We had a wonderful drive in the Montana countryside, but we didn’t see the 80 ft. vertical rock wall. Maybe you will be luckier!

The drive was nice and the Hyalite Reservoir that we saw along the way was absolutely beautiful. The reservoir is formed by Middle Creek Dam on Hyalite Creek. It encompasses 490 acres, is about 1/5 miles in width at its widest and is 126 feet at its deepest. The reservoir is situated in Hyalite Canyon at an elevation of 6,699 ft.!!

The Lewis and Clark Cavern State Park in Whitehall, MT was the first state park in Montana. You have two options for taking a tour of the caves. One tour is much more physically strenuous, but you will see more of the caves. This tour includes going down approximately 500 steps. Side note: each stair took two to three days EACH to make!! The less strenuous tour includes a .5-mile hike to the caves and then walking around inside. There are a few stairs, but not “too many”. It was amazing to see the formations in the cave. When we could hear him, it was obvious our tour guide was very knowledgeable about the caves. The tour group size is rather large, 35 in our group, including many young children. You cannot go into the caves without being part of a tour. This is definitely something special to do. It was amazing!

Downtown Bozeman

Downtown Bozeman is a really nice area with lots of stores, restaurants and businesses of all kinds. And no parking meters, but EXTREMLY busy!

Food and Drink

Montana Ale Works is in downtown Bozeman. There are menu items such as bison steaks, elk burgers and bison potstickers! The Ale Works is housed in an old freight train house. The food was excellent and the wait staff was attentive.

Stacey’s is a steakhouse and bar in Gallatin Valley, just a few miles south of Bozeman. The steakhouse and bar have a colorful history! At the end of Prohibition, entrepreneur May Ping Sellards converted the building into the Old Faithful Bar, complete with a brothel upstairs. Thirty years after the bar opened, Stacey and Phyllis Crosby bought the bar, renovated it and reopened it as Stacey’s Old Faithful Bar. Locals just call it Stacey’s. It is definitely a hangout for locals. The food was good, the wait staff was friendly.

Home Base: The Campground

For us, a campground is not our destination. Our RV is self-contained. Except for water, electric and sewer rarely do we use campground services or amenities. We are explorers, not campground reviewers!

We stayed on site G3 at Bozeman Hot Springs Campground in Bozeman, MT. 30 and 50 amp service were available. The campground was very clean and well maintained.
The staff was friendly. Our full hook up (water-sewer-electric) site was on level gravel. Our pull through site was long enough to leave the Jeep hooked up and still have both vehicles off the road. The site was wide with grass between sites. There was good cell phone coverage (Verizon) and a good open southern sky for our satellite. Easy off and on I-90.

This is the only campground we have ever been to that has 12 pools! The four outdoor pools range in temperature from 90-103 degrees. There are outdoor concerts at the pools on Thursday and Sunday night. The eight indoor pools range from 106 degrees to a frigid 55 degrees. There are even a couple of pools that are specifically meant for kids and infants!

AND there is a FREE continental breakfast like what you would have in a hotel. For example, scrambled eggs, omelets, sausage, French toast, cold cereal, hot cereal, English muffins, blueberry muffins, yogurt, coffee, and orange juice. It is so nice not to have to cook or clean-up for breakfast!! This is especially true of travel days!

Would we stay here again? Absolutely!! We have already booked another stay!

Fun Facts

With an average of 300 sunny days per year, Bozeman is one of the top tourist destinations in the Rocky Mountain region.

Today Montana State University is Montana’s largest university. It is consistently the top choice among Montana students, boasting over 9,000 in-state students from all of Montana’s 56 counties.

2026 Statistics

	Bozeman, MT
Population:	58,459
Founded:	1863
Elevation: 4,817	4,817 ft.
Average income:	$87,454
Average price of a house:	$704,794
Average age of population:	29 yrs.

Website: https://www.bozeman.net/

Summary

We were less excited about Bozeman than we had expected. It isn’t that the city is too difficult to get around, but with massive construction and 9,000 new students in downtown it was chaotic to say the least. Would we go back? Maybe.

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Since beginning our full-time journey to discover the country, we have found something to appreciate in every city and town we have passed through. We hope you enjoy reading about them as much as we have enjoyed discovering them!

Your partners in travel,
Kathryn and Dave
RVing Nomads

It’s a lifestyle

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• We have visited each town, attraction and restaurant we are writing about. • No person, business or attraction has paid us for an endorsement. • AI has not been used to write any of the content of this blog. • All the photos in this blog were taken by Dave or Kathryn Harrington.