Why Two Wandering Souls Decided to Make a Home in Montana
We are loving living in Big Sky Country!
Big news from the Vanimals! We moved to Big Sky Country—Montana! After over 18 months of traveling, it was time to go back to the “real world” and to find a more permanent location.
You might have noticed that we’ve been quiet on the blog and social media, but we plan to continue to add new content to TheVanimals.com. You’ll see places we visited in our van that we never wrote about, many unshared photos, and the tips and tricks for vanlife and frugal travel that we learned while living on the road. In addition to our past “advantures,” keep your eye out for explorations of our new home state of Montana.
There are plenty of places to explore in our new home state!
We are looking forward to what life after vanlife has in store for us.
Life After Vanlife
It had always been our plan to travel full time for a year in our van, and then go back to work. While some vanlifers work while on the road, we had budgeted for a year of travel. By living frugally and camping entirely for free, we were able to live in our camper van for over 18 months. Traveling for longer than expected didn’t make finally settling down any less unsettling, but we are happy with where we’ve landed.
After 18 months of traveling, it was time to head back to a permanent place to live.
Exploring new trails—on skis, instead of in our camper van.
A big part of why we decided to take time off from work to travel was to pick a place that we loved and that we felt that we both could live long term. We wanted be intentional about where we were going to make a home, rather than letting our careers dictate our location. We knew we loved the Northwest, so we narrowed in on Montana and Idaho as our top choices. In the end, the Treasure State snatched the prize.
We have already found plenty of fun to be had in the Treasure State!
Montana was our top choice of states when we were looking for jobs post-vanlife.
Why Montana Won our Hearts
Room to Roam
Montanans claim that their state is the Last Best Place—and they aren’t wrong (although they may face contention from Alaskans…). With places like Colorado and Oregon starting to feel crowded, Montana still feels like a place where you can escape. There’s plenty of open space for two former nomads to explore in their free time.
With many places out west getting crowded, Montana still feels open.
As we drove to our new home in Montana, our excitement grew as we drove through landscapes like this.
Sense of Place and Community
Being tethered to a single place, especially staying through winter when the main tourist crowd has left, will allow us to get to know Northwest Montana more intimately than we ever could while just passing through in our van. If you move every night, it’s impossible to be connected to a community. Our valley gets smaller every day, and we are looking forward to becoming part of the community.
We are excited to live year round in a single place and be able to get to know it better.
We are excited to be able to become a part of a community, now that we aren’t moving around everyday.
Mountains
Montana—the state’s name literally means mountain. We live in the valley below the rugged and undeveloped Mission Mountains. There are many places we loved in the US—the desert of Utah, New Mexico’s Badlands, the rocky Oregon Coast, the rolling green fields of Kentucky, but there is something special about riding my bike to work and seeing the sun stream over the towering snow-capped mountains to the east.
Since neither Ian nor I are from mountain states, we are stoked to be surrounded by snowy mountains.
Of all the landscapes we have spent time in, the Northern Rockies is among our favorites.
A Big Lake
Our final “hurrah” for our year and a half of travel was completing a 1300-mile bike tour around the world’s largest body of freshwater, Lake Superior. (Read more about our bike tour adventures—and misadventures!) I grew up in Northern Wisconsin near Lake Superior, and I spent four years living on the South Shore while attending Northland College.
Mountains and big water! What’s not to love?
We are lucky to live near one of the biggest bodies of water in the Western US.
We thought we’d have to give up big water in order to live in the mountains, because there are very few large bodies of water out West. We were lucky enough to land near the largest freshwater lake in the Western US. Flathead Lake is bigger than Lake Tahoe, not to mention a lot less bougie.
Cost of Living
So many mountain communities have become places that only the wealthy can afford to build second homes. There are places in Montana like that. Fortunately we found a small town where rent and the overall cost of living are still low.
Unlike so many places in the west, Montana still has a low cost of living in many communities.
We have been able to transfer many of our minimalist habits to our newly stationary life.
We can maintain the simple, minimalist life that we loved having in our van, while living in our house as long as we are conscious about it. At the same time, having a steady income allows us to enjoy some of the travel experiences we had to cut down on like eating out or going to places where you have to pay for admission.
We cut a Christmas tree in the national forest to decorate in our new house.
Nesting has been an enjoyable part of moving back into a normal house.
We’ve enjoyed cooking more complex meals since we now have a real kitchen.
Bike Infrastructure
I commuted almost exclusively by bike while living in Washington, DC, which many people don’t realize has excellent bike infrastructure. We spent a lot of time on our bikes while traveling in our van, and cycling is a big part of our life. So many places in the West, especially rural places, are completely “unbikeable.”
We love biking, and we have already discovered so many great routes!
It’s exciting that we were able to find a spot in Montana where there are separated bike trails.
Let the bike collection begin! Ian’s new goofy green bike that he got off of Craigslist.
When I was offered my current job and was considering the move, I was pleased to find paved bike trails visible on Google Maps and destination cycling events, such as the Mission Mountain Area Pedal to Plate, which I’m now helping to organize (shameless plug…sign up today!). There is even a bike trail separated from traffic that I can take the entire way to work. Yes, my bike commute is now 14 miles rather than 4, but I never have to deal with overweight men in suits shoaling me on bikeshare bikes, and I watch the sunrise every. single. morning.
Even when it’s snowy, I can still commute to work on my fat bike.
Biking along the trail near Flathead Lake.
Creature Comforts like Showers, Heat, Internet, Ice, and an Oven
It’s nice not to have to wash my hair in the same pot we used the night before to cook spaghetti. It’s even better to wake up in a warm house when it’s 6 degrees rather than a freezing van that is weirdly damp from our condensed breath. Not having to sit in a busy Starbucks to use the internet is convenient. I really missed having ice while living in our van (As Joni Mitchell said, “You don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone…”). Now we can have ice whenever we want. Vanlife offers adventure, but my oven offers me cake.
When we were cooking in our van’s kitchen, we never would have cooked an elaborate meal like this for Christmas dinner.
We didn’t have an oven in our van, so I went all out on making baked goodies this year.
Stability and Routine
When you’re living on the road and moving around every night, there is always a low-level of anxiety about finding a safe place to park and sleep each night. As much as we loved the spontaneity of vanlife, there were also times like the spontaneous breakdown in rural Kentucky. While we sometimes pine for our free-spirit life in our van, we have found joy and discipline in our new Montana routines, without boredom or sacrifice.
We’ve enjoyed the stability of not having to find a place to park our van every night while traveling.
We loved the spontaneity of vanlife, but we’ve found joy in our new stillness too.
Beaches, Bike commuting, Bike routes, Bike Safety, Biking, community, Cooking, Fat Biking, flatHead Lake, Food, Frugal Travel, Hiking, Minimal Living, Mission Mountains, Mission Valley, Montana, Mountains, National Forests, Northern Rockies, Trails, Travel, Vanlife, western Montana, Winter
Have you gone back to the real world after living in van? Where did you decide to live post-vanlife? Tell us about your experiences by leaving a comment!