Cragies and Snacks

Yosemite, The Gunks, Moab, Boulder, Squamish, The Red, dirtbag destinations abound!  If I was forced to pick the next great dirtbag pilgrimage, it would be Bozeman MT!  Southwest Montana is home to over 2,500 routes of all possible styles from ice climbing and alpine climbing to bouldering and aid.  Helena, Butte, and Bozeman are home to scenic mountain and wilderness settings that carry beauty and adventure far beyond the thrill of the send.  With camping and hiking all throughout the region, this is a mecca for all seekers of type II fun!  With literally hundreds of walls to choose from, you can’t go wrong anywhere in Southwest Montana, but if you are trying to get a little bit of everything in one place then set your GPS to 45.40709, -111.22525.  Gallatin Canyon Climbing is elite, accessible, and inclusive to all climbing levels and styles.  Plus, it is only 1.5 hours from Yellowstone National Park!

With nearly 500 routes spread throughout the canyon, it is tough to choose just one crag, but when push comes to shove, it’s gotta be the Gallatin Tower on the West Side.  There is a reason this wall is so popular, the rock is gneiss, and there are nearly two dozen classics concentrated into this one magnificent area!  The Tower offers a mix of trad and sport routes with both single and multi-pitch options.

Two of the primary draws to the Tower are the classic 3-pitch 5.8+ called The Standard Route, and the ultra-classic 4-star 5.12a called Bowling for Buicks.  Both routes offer climbers fun challenging opportunities to gain elevation and vistas of this enchanted area.  The Standard Route offers a panoramic 360-degree vision of what heaven must be like, and with another 20 routes to mess around on, the Gallatin Tower will have you occupied, happy, and ready to eat.

Luckily for you Bozeman is just a short drive from Gallatin!

Bozeman is a great city, with a ton of options for you and your dirtbag chums.  We don’t usually focus our attention on beer, but Shine has been voted Best beer selection in Bozeman, Best craft beer bar in America, and Best in Bozeman in 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024.

When it comes to beer, they have everything your heart could desire, they even have 9 different non-alcoholic options.  Impressive!  Beer however isn’t the only thing going down smoothly at Shine however, they also have a really fun food menu!

Burritos, Bowls, and Tacos!  You’re in Montana, so of course you’re going to get the option of grass-fed beef and bison, but then they hit you with the option for ginger banana chutney and Jambalaya as well!  The menu is terrific, and there really is something for everyone, but if you are looking to me for a recommendation, you gotta go with the Wrap of Khan Burrito Bowl!  The Wrap of Khan includes spicy black bean spread with rice, bamboo shoots, purple cabbage, and Thai peanut sauce, when you make it House Style they will add corn salsa, gorgonzola cheese, and ginger-wasabi vinaigrette. Yum!

This place is such a dirtbag dream that even if you can’t make it to Gallatin for a day of climbing on your trip from Yellowstone to Glacier National Park, Shine is still the ideal place to refuel your body and recharge your spirit!

Location: Bozeman, MT “Oro y Plata”

Crag: Gallatin Canyon

Restaurant: Shine

Distance: 27 Miles

1. While we’re on the topic of Montana, if you ever get the chance to travel to the northeast part of the state through a little town called Glasgow, you might stop in to visit Jeff and Sam Knodel at locally acclaimed Eugene’s Pizza.  This homegrown gem has been in the Knodel family since 1967 and in town since 1962.  That is over 60 years of slinging delicious pizza and putting smiles on customer’s faces!  Glasgow isn’t exactly in the middle of climbing nirvana, in fact, in 2018 it was identified by the Washington Post as the actual middle of nowhere for the contiguous United States, but the pizza at Eugene’s puts this little town at the center of our attention.