Montana… less minutiae
07-24-2026
In an effort to expedite the catching-up-with-myself process, I am going to attempt to speed run a bit of this, and spare the excruciating detail. We got up around 9am and helped ourselves to a big fat breakfast and coffee at the campsite. We loaded up the 4Runner and started out. Our first stop was the Mount Washburn trailhead. We had plenty of miles ahead of us, tracing the northern loop of the park, and decided we would just hike up a mile or so and turn around. On our way back, we gathered wild flowers and pressed them in our matching pair of Barbara Kingsolver books when we got back to the car. We stopped at a few more pull-offs (little nooks where you can park for a minute on the side of the road), most of them overlooking Tower Falls, where we peered through walls of poplar trees, hundreds of feet below us at the water, rushing, white, and turbulent. Further down the road, we arrived at Lamar Valley, a rolling prairie where I was wishful for a wolf siting. A young boy at the campsite had told me that they had seen a black wolf the day before, and his father said this was the spot. No wolves were seen unfortunately, just a handful of pronghorns, elk, plenty of bison, and a grizzly bear from a few hundred feet away, that we could only really kind of see through the digital zoom lens on my VHS camera. We did managed to spot a cow moose and her calf, feeding along the slope of a hillside, maybe only about 250 feet away. We were separated by a small gully, which gave us a bit of confidence, as we really wanted to leave her plenty of space. A moose, as you probably know, is not a beast you want to fuck around with. We drove north toward Gardiner, through a series of dead-serious switch backs. We exited the northern entrance of Yellowstone around 4pm and head back to Missoula. We got back around 8pm and chilled before bed, reflecting on the past few day’s adventures. The next morning was the beginning of the end of our time in Montana. We started the day at a shop that had been recommended to us on the night of the show by many a local, called Butterfly Herb. It was an herb shop as you may have guessed; lots of teas, spices, oils and the like. At the back of the shop there is a coffee/tea shop that sells breakfast items as well. At the very moment we settled into a booth in the back of the establishment, I turned my head up to see Nataanii, a new friend I had made at the show just days before, who had offered me a tarot reading. I hadn’t thought into it too much, as I knew our time was extremely limited, and our schedule had been packed rather tightly. Destiny had its own plan however, and she led me directly into this moment. We greeted Nataanii and she was more than happy to give us a reading. I didn’t get the feeling she was surprised that our paths aligned on their own, almost as if she was communicating non-verbally that this is just how fate works. We sat still as she held both of our palms, and dealt cards with great focus and intent. I won’t go into the details of our reading, but I can tell you the contents felt incredibly relevant to both of us, Anjelina and I. Certain things seemed to pertain to our own struggles/life paths, and others to our relationship and its own intricacies. It was an introspective and highly moving experience, and I am very grateful that the universe led us there that morning. The rest of our day was spent galavanting around the town, stopping here and there as we pleased. We went to a butterfly and insect sanctuary, which was another highlight of the trip. We got some dinner and a few beers, and headed back to her sister’s place to pack up the rest of our things, and organize our cars for our departure the next morning. It was an excellent “wind down” sort of day, a perfect conclusion to our stay in the charming city of Missoula,
More to come,
Harrie
P.S. if you haven’t figured it out, the photos always show up in reverse order to the story.. Can’t figure out how to import them in the right sequence… so please start at the bottom if you’d like to see them in chronological order.





















































































































