Montana is the 4th largest state behind Alaska, Texas, and California. It is 43rd in population with just over one million residents. It is called “Big Sky Country” for its wide-open spaces and “The Treasure State” for its abundance of natural resources. This will be a special memory for She & Me, not only for its incredible beauty but also for the fact that we are meeting two of our three children and their families here for a week. Our son and family are unable to attend due to his Coast Guard move from Key West to Yorktown, Virginia. We miss our kids and grandkids terribly and are looking forward to their visit.

About 50 miles north of the Wyoming/Montana border on I-90 is the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument. You may know it as the site of Custer’s Last Stand. There is an informative summary of the battle on the National Park Service website. CLICK HERE to read it.

The monument on the hill shown above is a mass grave of about 220 souls. The locations where soldiers and warriors perished on the battlefield are marked with marble headstones (see below).

George Custer and his brother both died in the battle and fell near each other (stone shadowed in black and Thomas is in front to the right). 268 soldiers and scouts were killed in the battle that lasted about an hour.

There is a beautiful memorial to the native american warriors. Numbers are conflicting but 100-200 indians were killed in the battle.

Our first overnight in Montana is in Billings at the very first EVER KOA campground situated on the Yellowstone River. Established in 1962.

The RV Park had some of the nicest amenities we have seen at a KOA

While in Billings we visited Pictograph Cave State Park. The park is beautiful and the 3 caves are an interesting climb but the pictographs left by ancient peoples inside the caves have mostly faded. Many other ancient artifacts have been found including tools & weapons.

(Pictograph images enhanced)