EXPLORING BILLINGS, MONTANA | Pictograph Cave State Park & Little Bighorn | Solo Female Vanlife

[Music] all right I'm heading into the state park and it's right like next to Billings it's only like 10 minutes away um yeah this is beautiful what a beautiful morning well this is nice I'm just going to park in this like RV space right here it's not open yet so I'm going to wait about four more minutes it's a fee area I'm not sure like how Montana works with veterans and stuff so I'll go in the visitor center when it opens but yeah this is nice yeah so let me see like what my train is hang on one second all right great turnout I'm just kidding let me go over here so yeah Visitor Center we're going to go in there first and then it's just a half a mile walk and I think there's only like three Petri gphs I never find them I've been to like all the Petri GPH places I could possibly go like in aluer there's hundreds and I'm like I don't see them I don't see any of them that's a cool picture I didn't even dry my hair my hair is wet right now yeah I'm literally like wet hair don't care so anyway after this I'm going to Little Big Horn and so that's just a little bit ways I think it's like an hour or so maybe I don't know it's not far from here what is with this light streak what is happening I'm getting stabbed by the Light anyway let's go in the visitor center okay so the Visitor Center opens at 10:00 I'm not entirely sure how I'm supposed to pay to be here or what the uh like thing is for um Montana like if veterans are free I have no idea what the Montana State Park program does any it's very very hot out here actually it feels nice it was cold this morning morning um it was cold last night which was great um but anyway welcome to the P pictograph cave State Park many generations of plains peoples use the pictograph middle and Ghost Cave complex as a resting spot leaving behind objects and painted images or pictographs from their daily lives these pictographs and artifacts are remnants of past cultures highly sign significant to the furthering our understanding of Montana's human history okay6 miles is like one other two other cars here um yeah the person that was supposed to call me at 9:00 a.m. never called I was like what the hell so anyway let me start my straa even for a. Five Mile height cuz it is on straa it is on all Trails rather yeah so I'm literally just going to do this and go up and walk around so okay that should take me no time whatsoever anyway all right let's do this this is cute all right let's go see what this about I feel attacked it's like did you remember your binoculars it's like the biggest font it's like uh no clearly well this is cool this is all the stuff in Montana that you can go to these are all the Natural Parks cultural areas and waterbased Parks so tons and tons of lakes it's really really pretty Louis and Clark Caverns I wanted to do that when I was in Boseman and didn't get a chance to do we didn't really do anything that day we just kind of walked around the downtown and got lunch and went to the Dinosaur Museum but there was like you know I wanted to do some other stuff but I'll go back to Boseman another time um yeah when I'm on my own I can do like 10 things in a day day and be like perfectly fine when you're with other people it's kind of like I got to kind of you know gauge the room kind of thing okay for non-resident visitors okay Visitor Center is not open I have to do it on the way back there's the most optimistic toilet there like the best view and then yeah so let me figure out which way I'm going there's a little picnic area that's very pretty no bugs I am loving Montana the fact that there's no mosquitoes uh Beware of rattlesnakes [Music] though all right so it's an hour later I was just sitting down there I had my call they finally called I was getting the time zones messed up anyway so I'm going to go back walk back up and then flip-flops which I think is fine um yeah this is mobility accessible not for wheelchairs though unless you have like an allterrain wheelchair cuz it is you know Pebbles beautiful day my arm is hurting so my arm was like had my phone up to my ear for an hour but anyways I going to walk up here and then uh get the hair out of my mouth and then head out to little bigon see apparently there's only like three petroglyphs in the whole cave which is fine so pretty out here it's like Billings Montana definitely not Boseman I'll tell you that [Music] after you walk to the Ghost Cave just walk back [Music] down all right now I'm walking on the pave Trail which is uh wheelchair accessible and uh yeah I'm going to go up the other side now you could probably spend maybe 45 minutes here go all the way up to the end I don't know if I will I'm kind of tired now so since I've been like up and around since 7 this morning and only just getting started at 10:00 a.m. so it's okay I'm glad they called they're supposed to call 8: a.m. but I think they called I don't think I'm on Central time I think I'm still on uh mountain time in Montana who [Music] knows so a lot of the trail is block tops you have to do the cut through where they are which is fine you still get quite a good walk it's very steep of course I just went downhill mountain biking yesterday so I'm hurting o there's a scary area down there let's see what that is on the map that is nothing that's just a picnic area so scary oh my God uphill uphill again yeah no petroglyphs left I guess so let's keep [Music] going let's see lots of Rock full yeah that's why like the top part of the trail is blocked so I guess you have to find this guy and this dude he's like I'm juggling jack fruit and this guy's like I'm carrying a table from Ikea yeah only a $750 fine to vandalize these caves they need to add about three more zeros to that fine they need to take some take some action on that yeah they are in pristine condition though really good condition but anyway okay so that's that little corner bit so now I'm on that blue dot so now I'm going to go up and around and actually I just have to cut through so I think I'm done after that you you can't do the whole Loop unfortunately a going downhill yay so happy all right so I have to go through the scary bit CU that's the bit that loops around this is great oh how pretty is this it's like a little fairy Forest my own private uh park bench it's weird it's like some of it's paved some of it's this gravel so if you are in a wheelchair like regular wheelchair you can only go to that one cave um if you're in like an allterrain um Mobility kind of thing you can go on this Pebble sidewalk thing okay so now I'm going to go to this other one and that's what they were saying on all Trails like they have the petroglyphs drawn out for you with a pictograph so you can see them but people couldn't find them so let's see non-maintained Trail use at your own risk I guess you can go up here I don't know I just did the Via Fado where like the shell was coming off pretty easily so I'm going to stay over here maintain a good distance oh look at a little kitty cat that's so cute yeah I've been to the Albuquerque national Petroglyph Monument I've been to newspaper rock in uh Capitol Reef I've been to um what is it the uh uh the cave that's in seminal Canyon State Park in Texas like um yeah lots of different lots of caves and lots of different places where they have pictographs and petroglyphs I never find them even though there's hundreds even newspaper rock I'm like I don't see anything and the whole rock is filled with petroglyphs and the occasional you know wedding anniversary inscription okay so I think I'm done actually I'm glad I went up there first and then Lo around let me go back and this BR there's my girl at least I have no problem finding her in a parking lot all right so yeah so that's it so let me uh let me just head on to uh Little Big Horn and that should be interesting there's three walks here I'm going to put regular shoes on I don't think I should be the idiot that's wearing flip-flops the other thing is that you're supposed to pay and uh everyone's just kind of walking from their car straight in so maybe it is if you have a park pass but I'll go in the visitor center right now and I'll go let you guys know what what we have to do I'll go check it out maybe get a magnet I need another little Petroglyph magnet so I've been collecting them yeah like a uh there's one in Arizona no Blanding in Blanding it was like um something of the Cedars and I got a really cute hat with a little Petri gliph on it like a a beanie and then I got a really cute magnet and then Bryce Canyon I got a little Petroglyph magnet so I'm going to do a whole tour of all my magnets and stickers so you can see all the places that I've claimed to have been you know and I'm not the person that just goes to take a picture and then gets a magnet like I actually do stuff at the places like hike mountain bike climb do a tour that kind of thing Camp you know so the guy back there is um he's uh putting money in an envelope let's see oh there's a sign okay Visitor Center service animals own L uh keep pets safe keep hydrated okay let's go in and take a look at this all right okay oh this is cute house is good I love these like little uh little exhibits all right this is sorry I just want to take a picture okay this is free because I have the uh the free access pass so let's do that hello H hi I have the um dis yeah disabled access pass this one hold on everything's up there straight up ahead okay great thank you have a nice day bye all right uh tour Road okay so I guess I have no I know nothing about this but it's a national monument so I think I've been to about 500 national no there's like 400 or something national monuments I have a list I've been checking off the list I went through and checked I think I'm at like 275 or something so the first thing is that there's a cemetery everything's kind of right around the same place um I'm in an oversized vehicle I think I can park here I don't know I would be blocking the road I don't want to do that so let me go up here these motor homes they they Park and then they have like an entire car length in between so I think I can I'm going to turn around and park right there so let me go around and figure out where I'm going to park everything's I think in the same place so yeah so that's fine okay there's plenty of parking up here and all the motorcycles it always cracks me up there's a visit Visitor Center there it's the same uh same Visitor Center as uh Theodore Roosevelt it's just basically a trailer okay and then you can walk around yeah everything's kind of in the same place it's just like the uh the National Monument Battlefield tour Road 5 miles hang on a minute 5 miles to Reno bentin Battlefield no exit Okay so I'm going to go around and just park oversized vehicle parking so I think I can park here I want to be in the Sun so let me park oh these RVs are ridiculous so let me go down here and park in front of this guy I think that's okay there's a space right here I probably run into the same jerk at the gas station I'm like dude okay so no one behind me and I'm going back in I don't get like these million dooll motor homes like I just I would never I would not survive trying to uh like this guy if you can see him you can't see him but anyway with not survive one minute trying to drag that thing around the country not all the places I've been can I have a blue sky please I have a cloudy Sky okay at least I'm getting good Sun so I'll give myself that much credit all right let me go right here okay cool okay so let me figure this out I know nothing about this place it was just on the way I mean I wanted to come here obviously it's on the list of like national monuments here's a map of the place and I'm going to go to like okay so I guess you can walk to everything or I have to drive the Reno Battlefield I guess I do have to drive up to the other end okay so over here we've got the visitor center Last Stand Hill 7eventh car Cavalry memorial indiaan memorial greasy grass Ridge kuster Battlefield so I'll go in the visitor center and then also we have the Reno bentin monument and uh and it shows you like all of the roots of the the military like where they went and stuff um that's cool okay let's get our learn on and there's a road there's like seven things on the road and then go up to the other stuff okay I think I learned about this in high school in California I was in AP US History advanced placement US history but it was all like nationalistic like USA so I didn't really learn like the real version I learned like the uh you know uh California public guy I can never do that the California public high school version that's what I learned I did not learn like the actual Native American version or like any of the other um ethnic groups in the country like their version of the history I've just learned the standard American California high school version so it's very good to be able to go to all these places and to learn because obviously in England we didn't learn anything you know I mean we know like there's like you know we used to have like cowboys and Indians right like we used to watch John Wayne movies and and and all that stuff but we never we never studied any any of this stuff we didn't never got as granular to like State history and uh yeah I think these people are the RV is in front of me um anyway but yeah so I never got granular in my my knowledge of the world in high school or college I took world history which is very you know just just kind of like surface level I never got you know to really get to know anything so that's why I travel that's why I I'm going all over the entire us and stopping as many places I can that's why like for me to just do like to spend two days in a place and do one thing is weird like I try to hit as much spots as I can because I just want to absorb it all you know while I'm there I mean the chance of me sorry coming back to this area anytime soon is pretty slim and since I'm here now and since the price of gas and all that stuff I'm like I don't understand people that like they they drive all over the you know places and they oh yeah we didn't stop to see that I'm like but you were you were right there like why would you not spend 10 minutes to get out and take look and you know learn something like no they just and they go yeah we like we didn't really see anything or we spent like 3 days in this town and we didn't do anything and I'm like if that's your like chill and be still like travel mentality not mine like I want to see everything you know see as much I can and try to create some content on it but for the most part I want to learn it I never learned any of this stuff and I'm fascinated by all of the Native American history and you know it really gives an idea of the the culture cuz when I was a travel writer I was going to be a political reporter and I majored in journalism and political science economics and international relations and Canadian studies at all these you know minors and majors and uh yeah I just um realized once I moved to Japan after college that Japan wasn't like anything I took or read in my uh my Japanese culture class my senior year I was like well Japan's totally different like who knew and then Northern Japan's a whole different culture than Southern Japan and even like the food and the snacks and the you know the art and the pottery and you go to like okanawa and it's even different and uh you know kushu and like Tokyo and Kyoto and then I lived in Hoku which is different than um you know Hokkaido and so I was just like well no one taught me this I'm going to have to keep going physically going to these places to to get to know it so and even like British culture what people think Brits are like they don't realize there's like hundreds of different accents and you drive 20 minutes there's a different word for bread and like you know anything north of Watford where I lived is the north of of England of the UK okay um yeah like people just kind of have that perception and it's a very you know 140 characters like bite-sized content but until you actually go and start going places and maybe like learning the language learning the culture get local friends sorry everything's like itchy from the bugs maybe I don't know um yeah so you don't really learn until you go places and even then you're really kind of still Bound by what they present to you and that's when you have to just keep getting granular go eat the local food do a home stay I did tons of Home stays on the 40 countries I went to in four years in Japan I did hom stays had no money I was a poor 20-some Backpacker like early 20s like 22 years old and did home stays in other countries hosted people in my country in Japan that I was living in and it was great but yeah so you really have to get out and like see everything for yourself and take a look and and talk to people if you don't then you're just going to be like oh yeah I know the world and usually the people that know the least that have been the least places are the ones that want a mansplain or you know the carens of the world or the ones that like are the most prejudiced but it's like you really just need to get out there that's you know even even be a tourist in your own town you'd be surprised at what you would find like you probably got the crazy cat lady with you know a thousand you know like shell ornaments or something I don't know like there's always weirdness and quirkiness around and I think that's kind of the culture that's the culture I want to know like not just like oh this happened in 1867 and blah blah blah it's like okay but how did that affect everybody like how did it change the trajectory of the town like how did it change how people had a way of life like that's what I'm more interested in so when I wanted to be a political reporter then I moved to Japan and I became a travel writer and I focused on food and culture and uh it was great and that's what I wrote articles about was food and culture I didn't care about politics you know because most of the people I stayed with didn't care about politics even if you're in a war torn country or communist country or whatever it's like when I was in China like the Chinese people were wonderful and all they wanted to do is practice their English and you know ask me questions about the west and all this stuff they don't care about the government I mean obviously the government's horrible at times you know like um you know human rights and stuff but the average person just wanted to get through life and and you know and but they just happened to live in a system that was you know restrictive and communist and you know limits on children and things like how many children you can have stuff like that but that we we never talked about any of that and I I hang out with lots of different people did home stays and and meetups and English uh English corner where they'd like have foreigners come to this hotel lobby and put you with each one of you in a different group of Chinese people and you sit there for like an hour and a half drinking tea and speaking English but we never talked about religion politics or or anything like that we just talked about like you know what do you like to do for fun and what's your favorite food what music do you like what movies do you like and that's what I love I love kind of embracing that um because you learn a lot like how we influence those countries and how they perceive us you know their our culture our pop culture anyway blah blah blah yeah so that's it so let me go check this out I think this might be all right so okay see you in a bit bye this is the cemetery and uh visitor centers over there this one was in World War I US Army the wife of a private I guess if you're family do you get to be buried in a military Cemetery I don't know I mean my family has a plot in um I'm actually walking on dead bodies I'm weird about if you've seen other episodes I'm really weird about like burial I'm not religious but like burial kind of freaks me out I watch pist when I was like 5 years old anyway um but we have a a family I guess my dad well my dad's buried in East brunwick New Jersey so we're in like a cemetery it's Belarusian Cemetery everybody's got like a thousand million z k s k i like unpronouncable last names but it's all Eastern European except my last name which is a Hungarian last name and it's most simple spelling and people still pronounce it wrong um we do have a plot I think in Munich from my mom's side of the family um but yeah I don't know I don't know what the uh cuz when Tim died Tim was a veteran uh well he was active duty um he died a couple weeks before he was going to retire from the Air Force and he's buried in uh Indiana at his own like their ploted like their family plot but he had a military funeral with the uh the gun salute and the um you know like it's kind of sad to talk about but yeah he had like the six um like folding the flag whatever that ceremony is called um but he didn't get buried in a in a veteran and he went to war but I guess you know I guess it's optional anyway okay let's go check out the um Visitor Center I don't know it's kind of busy I don't know if I'm going to drive all the way to the other end to go look at the battlefield I might as well I mean I'm here but we'll go take a [Music] look so that road goes past a couple different stopping points I guess you can drive up walk up so I think I'll just drive up these I think are people in Montana who died in more not too familiar with like the uh know the VA like afterlife protocol how there Pro anyway sorry always see her she like pared with all the all the uh rvers okay let's go check this out in here yeah it's free to come in all the motorcycle people too and Mobility accessible that's good all right so they have books and t-shirts and hats and then they have stickers they also have Ranger programs at different times during the day which are always interesting I've only been on a few I think um King's Canyon was really interesting at the uh big tree um okay let me go I'm going to drive I don't feel like walking this is a stopping point on my 7 hours of driving today but I do think I'd rather come back here when it's not so crowded and also with Harriet would be nice teacher a little bit about history all that good stuff so yeah let me go just drive drive through and kind of show you the lay of the land and then you guys can come here and if you want to get out walk around it's just a bit hectic trying to keep driving and finding parking cuz it is quite busy this is the battlefield tour road you can walk up here if you want it is actually very very hot right now it's like 95° so I'm going to say no on that but anyway yeah there's a little Monument to my right and then there's another stop here for a minute there's another Monument over there put you on the holder there there we go that's easier okay so yeah um okay so yeah you go through here just go like 10 or 15 mes an hour don't go very far so there's a lot of people so there's a lot of yeah I'll show you the uh the big Obelisk thing on the way back and then speed limit 30 mph okay so I've got to drive all the way to the end this is cool I guess yeah I guess there was a big war or something something going on oh there's tons okay so there's tons of um sorry I'm going to stop for a minute there's tons of hiking trails tons of pave Trails down there that you can uh go for a walks you probably get like a couple miles of water working in there um you can also Park on these like Lys and get out and take a look at what the what the little information thing says yeah 30 mph on this road yeah you can't walk the whole thing you have to drive but there's all these like I said there's all these pull outs you can pull over and get out and take a look so there's about eight or nine maybe 10 of these little viewpoints and uh yeah and then all these little parking areas I just have to be careful when I'm in Prudence if it is like a congested area like I just I don't want to be taking up more room than I need to um but anyway but there's all these little like um headstones kind of scattered around the field I guess where each person died I don't know how they kept track of where each person was like shot and killed like I mean the war was like like I don't know 200 years ago 150 years ago um whenever that was but yeah there's just like random uh headstones kind of just poking out of the fields like dotted around like there'll be one and there'll be nothing for like 40 feet and then there'll be another anyway this road circles around this is nice actually it's kind of like a little Safari this is a two-way Road here and I guess you can go up and around as well okay so I'm going to go to the right and then I'll Circle back and go to the left this is cool this is like those uh in England when I grew up there we used to have um Wen safari park it was like this little African safari in like the rainiest part of England or something it these animals were miserable were miserable and whips and a zoo was another one I think they had the monkey cage you drive through with your car and of course that German tourists end up have their window down and the monkeys will get in and stuff you know it's kind of like any time I'm on these little tour roids I'm like oh it's going to be like miserable soaking wet giraffes and like you know depressed hippos and and we went every year and I was like a kid I'm like you realize these animals do not belong in the middle of England they need they belong in like the Serengeti or like Zimbabwe or Kenya I'm like please liberate these animals and put them in an environment where they will live and Thrive and not just you know they had polar bears like the zoos in England I'm like why the hell is there a polar bear in the zoo like the polar bear needs to be in like spard or like you know the Arctic or something I don't know anyway okay so this is a long road there's no way out at the end I be to turn around so let me go up okay well that's the Little Big Horn National Monument pretty cool so yeah I guess uh I would suggest reading up about it before you get here um just so you have the knowledge of the uh history of it and then come here and experience it but yeah it's just interesting I'm like I really don't know how they knew that that was the exact spot that that person was was killed so they might have just guessed I'm thinking but there's no way out at the end of this road so let me go up and turn around and then I have a three-hour Drive to Casper and I'm go park up at Starbucks so that's it those are my two activities for today it is is a driving day so it's fine um and then I think I don't know I think I'm parked on the side of the freeway tonight uh not a lot of options in Casper I have to see if there's like a rest area or a truck stop or something um I have to look for that but yeah I'll do that when I get to Starbucks I'll figure out where I'm staying um in Casper tomorrow I've got a hike uh not too close not too far and then there's also the um the bank which I might get there in time to go to the bank which has one of two escalators in Wyoming so right now I'm in Montana so I'll be heading to Wyoming and then heading back out so I do want to turn around can I turn around up here okay let me see if there's a pull out this road seems obscenely long I don't think this is there's actually there's another bunch of stuff at the end of this road yeah yeah you can't walk this you have to definitely drive if you have a a big old RV with a trailer and all that stuff you won't be able to come back here I think it's just too much but anyway so yeah let me go up good thing I filled up on gas and yeah we go all the way to the end of the road all right it's about 2 and 1 half miles up this road to get to the Reno bentin Battlefield and then there's some more stuff at the end that's a nice drive I mean all I'm doing today is driving that's pretty much what uh uh Montana looks like when you're out of the mountains it's just flat and nothing [Music] there's lots of walking trails as well so um and then little like information stuff that's it okay all right let's head out of here so I'm heading out but there's the ranger [Music] program my windshield is completely covered in bugs I thought it was raining but no these are all bugs I'm stopping in the town of Casey it's the only gas station between here and Casper and I don't have enough gas to get to Casper um um I probably should have gotten gas back in Buffalo which was an hour behind me um but I've also been driving for 2 and a half hours so I've got 55 minutes to go there's the rest area over here that's one option the other one is 54 mil south of Casper so I've got to see I think I'd rather stay at the rest area I got to see which rest area is closer to my hike tomorrow probably going to be the one on the south um but this is Sinclair over here there's so many motorcycles Sturges is happening I guess um um they have all these signs like stay vertical for Sturgis and you know just don't die but uh I think it's isn't it like is it like a bunch of like Maga supporters I don't know it's it's kind of not my crowd U let's put it that way but anyway see yeah there's tons of like Harley-Davidsons around and everyone in their leather and of course they're taking up all the gas pumps so yeah let me just go uh figure out how much gas is over here doesn't say oh 325 oh that's actually super cheap who knew so anyway let me oh yeah there's three three motorcycles and one vehicle so I need to get gas so coming up is a parking area where you can stay overnight and uh that's I think where I was going to stay so I was like oh I think I'm just pulling off the I25 to stay for the night and I think that's it so that's on I Overlander I think that's fine yeah I can just park there if I really need to that means I have to come back up the freeway and there's nowhere for me to turn around so I would have to go all the way back up and down I have to figure it out because I don't want to backtrack if I have to go 60 Mi like up here 30 Mi turn around and go back to my hiking spot uh tonight and then tomorrow I might as well stay 54 miles down south of Casper in the uh official rest area but yeah so you can just stay in those that's fine it's very pretty out here it's a very bad lands now like if you look over here yeah it's very very like channeling uh north of Albuquerque it's pretty cool or north of Santa Fe