A Weekend in White Sulphur Springs

A Weekend in White Sulphur Springs:

Friendsgiving

White Sulphur Springs

For those who are unaware, White Sulphur Springs is a lovely, small town in Central Montana, located where MT Highways 12 and 89 briefly overlap.  The town grew up around a natural hot spring (more on this below), and is well situated for all kinds of outdoor activities.  Hunters flock there every fall in the hopes of filling their tags, and in the winter skiers enjoy Showdown Ski Hill which is only a little over 30 miles away.  The town also provides good access to the Smith River in the summer.  And on top of this, the Lewis and Clark National Forest and the nearby Castle Mountains offer hiking opportunities all year long.

My inspiration to visit White Sulphur Springs came from a brief visit we made there this summer, when Pete and I decided to take a different route to my family’s cabin down in Emigrant.  I was charmed by the area, but we didn’t have time to stay and explore much, so I resolved to make another visit there soon.  My opportunity came when my close-knit group of friends from college—who although we live all over the state, make a point to gather for some sort of fun and adventure several times a year—started planning our annual holiday get-together, affectionately known as “Friendsgiving.”  I immediately suggested White Sulphur, and was delighted when my friends all decided they were game.

Vacation Rentals

For these get-togethers with my friends, our preferred places to stay are vacation rentals (commonly known by their company names, like VRBO or Airbnb, which are easy to Google).  Obviously, there are other options, such as camping (which is cheaper) or hotels (which are a little more straightforward), but we have found that vacation rentals are best suited to our needs for several reasons.  Camping is of course adventurous and cheap and a great way to experience nature, and I will do it every once in a while, but honestly when given the choice, I usually opt for an actual bed and indoor plumbing.  Also this time of year, you really have to have the right gear, or you will be frozen and miserable.  Hotels offer the basic indoor amenities of heaters, beds, and bathrooms—usually with added perks like a restaurant, pool, and/or workout room—but they are often not dog friendly, and they are missing what I and my friends feel is the most important part of any house: the kitchen.

VRBOs offer a wider range of options.  If you are looking for cheap and easy, there are single rooms for rent similar to hotels or bed and breakfasts, but they also offer the opportunity to rent an entire house for whatever days you need, which for large groups—particularly groups with experienced cooks—is amazing.  They are all over, and they range in price from the very affordable to the very classy, so you can tailor your choice to your needs.  Not all vacation rentals allow pets, but you can include pets as a filter in your search, so you only see the pet friendly options.  Like with any rental, a separate pet security deposit is often required, but if your furry friends are well-trained and/or well-managed, you get the whole thing back at the end of your stay.  The added fun of getting to check out different houses and their often eclectic decorations, such as this weekend’s pastel empty picture frames and memorable red carpet, makes vacation rentals an all around worthwhile experience.

This weekend we stayed at the Poor Farm through Airbnb, and it was perfect for our plans.  Our apartment was in the upstairs wing of a larger farm building, which apparently had been originally built as a place where locals who were down on their luck could come work off their debts.  The room doors still have their numbers from the original boarding house setup.  The apartment is completely separated from the rest of the house for our privacy, but the owners were conveniently right next door if we needed anything.  There was plenty of sleeping space—4 queen beds—a cozy living room with two couches, an armchair, and a propane fireplace, and of course a fully stocked little kitchen, where we all took turns making a meal.  Pete and I left work early so we could get there first, and led off by making steak and potatoes for everyone.  And the best part of our rental was that Rocky and Dug got to come along on our adventure, as did our friends’ dogs Nayda and Kepler.

A Note on Map Apps

Some vacation rentals come with very detailed directions to the house or apartment.  Others, as was the case for us, only include the address.  This is fine, as you can simply enter it into a map app on your phone, and get directions from there.  Unfortunately, not all map apps are created equal.  While I experimented with several when I first got a smart phone, I upgraded phones about a year ago, and still haven’t gotten around to downloading all of my old apps.  So all that was on my phone was the Maps app that comes on all i-Phones, and that is what I used.  Big mistake.  It took us to the wrong place, and I mean way the wrong place.  After going several miles out of town and then winding through several more on dirt roads, one of which we are fairly positive was a driveway through someone’s farm, it declared we had arrived at a house that looked nothing like the pictures I had seen online.  Pete, who always takes the time to be prepared, had Google Maps on his phone, and when he entered in the address it took us back to a farmhouse just off of town, which happily matched all the pictures and descriptions we had been sent.  Moral of the story, take the time to download a good map app, such as Google Maps.  Maps—based on my experience and those shared by my friends after I told my story—is easily confused in rural areas.

Stars: a Perk of Small Towns

One of the very best parts of small towns, in my opinion, is the star viewing opportunities.  Light pollution from larger cities—innocently caused by the streetlights, lit signs, car headlights, and even light coming from people’s windows—can easily drowned out the smaller pinpricks of light in the sky.  Even at our house just outside of Polson (with its 4-5,000 residents), we can rarely see the smaller stars, or the band of light from the arm of the Milky Way.  But in White Sulphur, as in other small towns, the stars are out in full array.  Winter is a particularly good time for star gazing, as it gets dark early (and the further I get from my teenage years, the harder it is to stay up late), but you have to be willing to bundle up.  Dogs can help with that, as particularly in new places, you have to put on your winter layers to accompany them on their evening constitutional.  When we took our dogs out that first night, we were in for a special treat: there were a number of shooting stars in the vicinity of Orion (who has long been my favorite constellation), and we all saw one!

Hiking in the Castles

It is a custom with this group of friends to always do at least one outdoor activity at these gatherings, so for this weekend we decided to go hiking in the Castle Mountains.  We had all brought cross-country skis or snowshoes, in case we decided to go to the groomed trails near Showdown, but dogs are not allowed on groomed trails, and based on the wrestling tournament Rocky and Kepler were hosting in the living room, we figured they needed the exercise.

The Castles—named for their castle-like rock formations—are not the most towering or impressive mountains you’ve ever seen; they are certainly a far cry from the Beartooths or the Missions.  But that can be a point in their favor.  They are easily accessible for hikers and hunters and campers, and they still offer all of the woods, hilltops, rock formations, and streams that make the mountains fun to visit, without the sheer intimidation of the greater mountain ranges.  And smaller doesn’t necessarily mean easier.  We found plenty of inclines steep enough to remind me how out of shape I am (and to more than once make me regret the second helping of egg casserole I had for breakfast!)

There are numerous trails throughout the Castles, and if you are interested in exploring, I recommend checking out the National Forest website to see some more of your options: Lewis and Clark National Forest .  The trail we took started at the Richardson campground.  Getting to the trailhead involves crossing the creek, where you will see a board bridge provided, but this time of year it was easier to just walk carefully across the ice, since the creek was frozen solid.  With the help of GPS apps and/or devices, we were able to find our way to the top of Prospect Peak.

My progress was slow.  I was hindered not only by the extra egg casserole, but also by my stiff rubber Muck boots which were rubbing terrible blisters on my heels.  I love these boots for doing wintertime chores around the house, but I am on the hunt for a better waterproof pair of hiking boots.  Despite all this, it was a beautiful day.  The sun was out, and there was a several inch blanket of snow on the ground.  The dogs ran and played their hearts out, reveling in the snow, which there has been fairly little of this winter (always a bummer this close to Christmas).  Even Nayda, who is getting on in years, enjoyed herself immensely, and Rocky got extra exercise, since he had to run back and check on me so often.  The trail was fairly densely wooded—mostly lodge pole pine—but there was a lovely view from the top of the peak, where we all stopped for a break.  Except for Pete, who had to chase his sunglasses down the hill.  They jumped out of his jacket and went sliding down the hill across the snow, but happily they got snagged on a tree before they slipped out of sight and were lost forever.

2 Basset Brewery (And the Reasoning Behind Flights)

After we finished our hike, we returned to the rental for a quick snack and the opportunity to change clothes before heading off to the local brewery, another custom (there is a reason I like these people!).  2 Basset Brewery is located on the main drag in White Sulphur, next to Stageline Pizza, which you can have delivered to the brewery.  This cheerful, cozy place is owned by the Hedrich family and named after their two basset hounds, Leroy and Stanley.  The walls are lined with pictures of the dogs advertising the various beers, and it was cozier still for the propane fireplace and the Christmas decorations hanging from growlers along the top of the wall.  The only bummer is that although the brewery is named after dogs, they aren’t allowed inside.  Not all insurance companies smile on our canine friends.  It isn’t a huge problem this time though, as the dogs were tuckered out and fast asleep, and with the cool weather, cracking the windows essentially transforms the truck into a comfy travelling kennel.  We are always sure to park it nearby, and check on them periodically.

The brewery was fairly busy when we came in; Pete even ran into someone he knew (because we can’t go anywhere without that happening).  We settled in to play some games—this weekend’s choice: Shut the Box—and I ordered a couple flights.  For anyone not familiar with flights, they are definitely the way to go, and this is actually the brewery that inspired that policy for me.  When we stopped in White Sulphur last summer for the aforementioned quick visit, we stopped in for a beer.  I ordered a red, which I generally like, but that particular one was not doing much for me.  I tried Pete’s and liked his (a brown ale), and there were a number of other beers that looked good, but we only had time for one (and it doesn’t help that I am a bit of a slow drinker when it comes to beers).  And the more I thought about it, the more I recognized the wisdom of flights.  While you can always ask for a sample, I hate to stand there and make the bartender pour a sample of everything.  And if you only have a couple beers, you don’t get a very complete sense of the brewery.  So ever since then, I have ordered flights.

There are generally two different ways that breweries do flights.  Some give you small shot-sized samples of every beer they have on tap.  Others, including 2 Basset, give you slightly larger glasses, and you can pick 4-6 beers that you want to try (2 Basset does 4, which seems fairly common).  In most cases, the flight only counts as one drink (depending on the size of the glasses, breweries are only legally allowed to serve 3-4 beers to a single person per day), but every once in a while it counts as two, so it is always good to ask.  I was mostly in a dark beer mood, common for me in colder weather, so I had the brown ale, the imperial ale, the scotch ale, and the vanilla porter, and I heartily recommend all four.  And for those who do not like dark beers, or if you happen to be there in the summer, I also found their Vienna lager very drinkable.

For more info on 2 Basset Brewery check out their website here.

Spa Hot Springs Motel and Clinic

One of the common sites as you start travelling around Montana is the old hotel that was built around a hot spring.  Some are incredibly nice and frequently renovated, others are a little run down.  Some are developed (aka actual concrete pool) but don’t have the characteristic hotel.  And still others have been left completely undeveloped, although there are usually some decent places to stay nearby.  The springs in White Sulphur are developed, and are part of the Spa Hot Springs Motel.

The motel is serviceable, although nothing out of the ordinary (although it was under renovation while we were there, so who knows).  You can access the pools if you are staying at the motel, or you can purchase a $7.00 day pass.  The pools themselves are fairly straightforward: two good-sized square outdoor pools (one a bit hotter than the other), and an enclosed hot tub which I confess I did not explore because I was warm enough already.  No bar or live music here, but the pools has ledges to sit on around the edges and the facility is clean, and honestly that is about all I really need.  Nothing beats soaking in a hot spring, particularly after our earlier hike.  I love to just lean back and feel the warm water around me.  My favorite time to visit hot springs is in the winter, when the cold air is in pleasant contrast to the heat of the water.  It is particularly fun when it is snowing, and the flakes melt in the steam just above your head, although we had clear skies on this particular occasion.

As I said earlier, if you are interested in hot springs, Montana has many you can explore.  Pete has definitely caught the hot springs bug after this last visit, so I am sure we will have more to tell you about soon, but in the meantime you can check out this list for inspiration: Montana Hot Springs.

Bar 47

And to top off the day, we went out to the local bar for dinner.  Pete and my’s friend who used to work in White Sulphur recommended Bar 47 to us, and we enjoyed our burgers while we were passing through last summer, so this time we brought the gang.  The burgers were still tasty, and the queso that came with our “Three Amigos” chips and dip appetizer (queso, salsa, and guac) was really amazing.  The bar is full of small town character, and apparently has live music from time to time.  We had a cozy seat next to the propane fireplace (fireplaces clearly speak to me this time of year), and we had an excellent meal.  The bar also serves a variety of specialty cocktail drinks served in large mason glasses.

Winding Down

The rest of the weekend was activities typical of my group of friends, things we tend to do wherever we are.  We headed back to the rental and relaxed with some brandy old-fashions and a couple rounds of cribbage.  We took turns playing DJ on a little portable Bluetooth speaker (although we tried not to be too loud because it was late and our neighbors were just next door), until no one could keep their eyes open anymore, and we peeled off for bed.  In the morning we had a lazy start with cinnamon rolls and coffee while we reminisced about the nineties with the help of a Netflix documentary.  All too soon it was time to pack up and head home; we were meeting my mom in Helena to watch the Chiefs game, and that is something my family does not take lightly.  Another Friendsgiving had come to an end.  All-in-all, we had a wonderful time in White Sulphur Springs and were glad we chose it.

Know of any fun activities we missed in White Sulphur?  Let us know and we will definitely give them a try.