Vacation in Billings: A Refreshing Family Adventure

The Calamity Jane Horse Cache cabin, located about twenty miles outside of Billings in Molt, Montana. (Courtesy of David and Keri Langford)

Commentary

“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” St. Augustine wrote this now-popular travel quote before the fall of the Roman Empire, which I’m sure most people would offhandedly acknowledge as true. However, a poignant experience can reinforce a concept you’ve frequently heard and make its significance very apparent. This happened to me when I recently visited Billings, Montana.

As a traditional American in the post-pandemic world, it’s easy to lose hope in our country and fellow citizens. I’ve spent my whole life in California, the acknowledged liberal capital of the country—if not the world. Although one reads about conservative meccas like Florida and Texas, I wondered how different people truly could be because of the worldwide influence of social media and the internet. I was in for a surprise when I visited Montana for the first time in November 2022 for the week of Thanksgiving.

A view from the rimrocks overlooking downtown Billings, Montanta. (Courtesy of Visit Billings)

My sister became a trainee with San Diego Ballet at age eighteen in September 2022. After years of training, she had finally become a professional ballerina! The challenge which came with it was greater than memorizing choreography and attending daily class, however. SD Ballet takes an annual tour with its production of “The Nutcracker,” and they asked Rebekah to go on the tour this year. Although the tour is usually two weeks long, this year it was scheduled for three and a half weeks, including thirteen shows in six cities across four states. This would be Rebekah’s first time away from home, and it quickly proved just as hard on the rest of the family back home, our parents and me, as on the young ballerina. Before she left, however, we vowed to join her wherever she would be for Thanksgiving. Thus, the day before the holiday, we flew to Billings, Montana.

Our Lodging

For my whole life, my family has spent Thanksgiving at home, with my mother making a turkey and usually my grandmother as our only guest. This year was going to be different, though. As the first year since my grandma’s death and the first autumn in our new home, this holiday season was bound to be different. I was glad when Rebekah’s tour gave us an excuse to make the holiday a totally new experience. We could have stayed in a hotel in Billings, but we decided to make it a true adventure by renting a cabin on Airbnb. To have the full Northwest experience, we booked the Calamity Jane Horse Cache Cabin, which is located about twenty miles outside of Billings in Molt. After all, why not go all the way and have the full Thanksgiving experience? We booked our flight, started packing our warmest clothes, and asked the host to have a turkey there for us.

South view of Calamity Jane property facing the Beartooth Mountain Range. (Courtesy of David and Keri Langford)

The owner of the Calamity Jane Cache met us by the Chief Joseph Monument, several miles outside of Billings. From the rental’s listing, we understood that the drive to the cabin could be rough, especially in wintery weather, so we made sure to rent a vehicle with all-wheel drive. As the owner David described the steep ascent up slippery rocks alongside steep cliffs, I was very glad we had! The dirt road proved to be akin to a rugged offroad adventure which we would have to repeat on our own many times during the stay, but it wasn’t quite as frightening as David’s warning made me believe. Knowing we are from Southern California, the longtime Montanan probably figured we live in a suburban community fifteen miles from the beach. As of August 2022, he would be right, but before we moved to Fallbrook in North San Diego County, we lived for 13 years in a rustic century-old wooden house in a mountain resort town called Idyllwild. It doesn’t get the heavy snowstorms and below zero temperatures of Montana, but it has steep roads which get icy on the freezing nights after the occasional snowstorm. My father’s years of driving the winding, steep highway up to the 6000-foot Idyllwild helped him navigate the road with confidence.

"Calamity" Jane (Martha Jane Burke nee Canary), circa 1890. American frontierswoman, born in Missouri, raised in Montana. Served as a scout with the US army, a pony express rider, gold prospector, team drover. Buried near her friend, Wild Bill Hickok, in Deadwood. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Our Montana home for almost a week was located on an expansive plateau, surrounded by views of rocky cliffs, dotted with pine trees rising majestically above frozen valleys through which a single road winds. The property is on a plateau of dozens of acres, offering 360-degree views and total isolation. The house itself is a two-bedroom log cabin built in the 1970s with a historic design. The property is named after “Calamity” Jane Canary, a famous horsewoman of the Old West, who once owned it. In fact, she used the remote land to keep horses she had stolen until she was able to sell them. An antique horse corral near the house is a tribute to the property’s past purpose, although it looked big enough to hold stolen elephants! Calamity herself didn’t build the cabin where we stayed, but a storage shed nearby is said to have been built from the logs used in her original house on the property. Another historic figure who frequented the area was Chief Joseph, a famous Nez Perce military leader who carved his name in a rocky cliff on the property.

Our Activities

After Thanksgiving, San Diego Ballet rehearsed with dancers from local studios and the Billings Symphony, which gave us some time to explore the downtown area. After exploring the local stores, we had lunch at Bernie’s Diner, a retro eatery on the bottom floor of the historic Northern Hotel. I sampled huckleberries for the first time and enjoyed the simple Americana cuisine with fresh local ingredients and reasonable prices. I found it refreshing to see them putting up Christmas decorations the day after Thanksgiving, according to the old tradition, instead of decking the halls before Halloween!

Bernie's Diner in Billings, Montanta. (Courtesy of Visit Billings)

That night, we went to Holiday Nights at ZooMontana, the opening night of an elaborate Christmas light display in the zoo’s gardens which has been two years in the making. Visit Billings, the local chamber of commerce, provided a lot of helpful information and assistance with planning, including obtaining tickets to this popular new event. Thankfully, the weather was mild and clear that weekend, so throngs of people visited the zoo after dark to gaze at the millions of lights in intricate formations, drink hot chocolate from the refreshment gazebo, toast marshmallows over a fire outside a private S’more hut, take pictures with Santa Claus, and take a hayride pulled by a tractor! It was a really fun, wholesome community event and a delightful opportunity to see traditional families enjoying simple pleasures together.

The Alberta Bair Theater in Billings, Montanta. (Courtesy of Visit Billings)

The focal point of the trip was to see Rebekah dance in “The Nutcracker,” so we attended all three shows at the Alberta Bair Theater. It’s a great performing space and a beautiful auditorium. On Saturday evening, between two performances of “The Nutcracker,” we dined at TEN, the gourmet restaurant in the Northern Hotel. The cuisine was as deliciously refined as I expected from the sophisticated setting, and the attentive service made it a genuinely elegant experience. Before the Sunday matinee, we spent the rainy morning exploring the historic Moss Mansion, an ornate estate built in 1903 by entrepreneur Preston Boyd Moss. The self-guided tour through the three-story mansion is both a history lesson and a pleasant diversion. Carefully preserved and restored possessions which belonged to the Moss family offer fascinating insight into how high society people of the West lived at the turn of the century, earning the museum’s Tripadvisor ranking as the top attraction in Billings.

The TEN restaurant in the Northern Hotel in Billings, Montana. (Courtesy of Visit Billings)

My Conclusions

As soon as we arrived in Billings, I knew we weren’t in California anymore. It wasn’t just the hardened snow on the ground or the brisk air. Shopping for Thanksgiving groceries at Albertson’s, I noticed strangers were making eye contact and smiling at me. My retro style makes me stand out anywhere, but Montanans offered warm, friendly smiles and nods instead of the bewildered, blank stares I often get from curious strangers in California. That hospitable spirit was also evident from servers at restaurants, where the service was slower than what we’re used to receiving in the Golden State, but the people were far more amicable.

The Babcock Theatre in Billings, Montana. (Courtesy of Visit Billings)

Throughout our stay in Billings, I appreciated seeing families enjoying activities together. It was especially delightful to see polite, well-behaved young children at “The Nutcracker,” enjoying real experiences instead of being glued to electronic devices. I was shocked by how many people were dressed very formally to see the ballet at all three shows. Men wore suits, and the women wore fancy dresses! I’ve found that audiences in California and even New York tend to be very casual at the opera and ballet, except for very young girls, who still enjoy wearing frilly little frocks. Could it be that conservative people still understand the importance of wearing your finest when you go to a special show?

I really enjoyed my visit to Billings, Montana. In our weeklong stay, we just scratched the surface of what this inviting community has to offer. If you’re interested in visiting a beautiful city full of warm, traditional people, I highly recommend Billings. It may just restore your faith in the average American citizen and give you some hope for our country’s future!