Located in the great plains in the southern central part of the state is the largest city in Montana of Billings. Despite Billings being a much larger city than Helena, it felt like there were less things to do here in comparison. The downtown areas were nice with plenty of places of restaurants and other places for entertainment, I Just felt there wasn’t as much history as Helena. The surrounding photos are some I took while walking around. Believe it or not, the building on the upper left is the tallest in all of Montana! The First Interstate Center stands at 272 feet with 35 floors, making it the largest building within 500 miles. The upper right photo shows an alley in Billings which does give the place the big city feel. Below are from the main commercial street and some artsy type of canopy installed over one of the intersections.
The thought of Montana always brings along with it the thought of horses. In most major cities you normally have to do quite a drive before you come across horses, but right outside of Billings I found several ranches. Like Vermont had colorful moose in Burlington, Billings had colorful horses decorated in its city. Montana – Billings – Car
These four photos are also from downtown Billings. Above is the second cool car I saw within the state, but unlike the one in Helena this one is drivable. It was either coincidence the drivers saw me take the picture and appeared to stalk me down random streets for about 15 minutes. I visited on a Saturday, and even though it wasn’t very late most businesses such as the art store above and antique store below were already closed!
Some of the packed restaurants I spoke of. The one on the left was super crowded but there were plenty of more formal and quite options.
A famous site to visit right outside of Billings is Pictograph park, known for its Native American artwork left behind in caves. The rocky dry area has some nice scenery and is surrounded by short but steep clips. A sign along the trails warns about rattlesnakes. In my opinion the pictographs are essentially gone, the cave was a decent size but the only pictograph I could see was the one to the lower right. On the lower left is you can see what the rest of the cave looks like. Most of the disappearing is due to the natural elements, especially rain trickling down the walls.
About another 30 miles east of Billings is an interesting place called Pompeys Pillar. Now somehow I took the time to visit this place but forgot to actually photograph the pillar itself! At least I got a photo of the important stuff. I never realized how big America’s obsession was with Lewis & Clark until I started to do some serious travel in the Pacific Northwest. It seems difficult to drive more than 25 miles without seeing some type of historical marker mentioning their expedition. I suppose it makes sense to be proud of their accomplishment, they were essentially the two Americans who discovered the Pacific Ocean and were the first to cross North America. Many followed Lewis & Clark’s footsteps; looking out for places such as Pompeys Pillar and other landmarks the two had described to make sure they were not lost. The reason I liked Pompeys Pillar is because Clark actually signed his name here seen on the upper left. It’s one thing to know someone important was in an area you’re visiting, but it’s much more interesting to see something they physically left behind. On the upper right are some signatures of others who passed through the area during the next few decades.
