Livingston Train Depot & Chico Hot Springs

When we visited the Yellowstone Gateway Museum earlier in summer the Northern Pacific Train Depot was not open. We decided to revisit Livingston, MT which is about 50 miles north of us. It's the closest large city with a population of about 7500. Livingston was considered the original entrance to Yellowstone National Park. People would take the train to the city and then ride a stagecoach down to the park. The depot is quite impressive.

I read that there is an historic bus tour of the city, and when I called about it I found out that it only runs on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Since we have Tuesday and Wednesday off I figured that we wouldn't be able to take the tour. When we arrived at the depot we found out that they were doing a special tour for a group of Japanese and Livingston children. After inquiring about it we were invited to join them since there was room.

The American children had gone to Japan and now the Japanese were visiting here. There was a woman who interpreted what the guide said along the way. The guide was the granddaughter of one of the original hotel owners. She was very informative and interesting and costumed as her grandmother would have been dressed.

Along the tour she pointed out houses and hotels. We drove past the Sacajawea Park where we saw her statue with her son Pompey. Sacajawea guided Lewis and Clark around this area. We skipped the "Red Light" district, but she pointed it out to us and told us that we could explore it on our own. The tour was geared to the children and probably not exactly what they usually do, but we were delighted to have the opportunity to ride the yellow bus around the city.

We were also able to view the miniature train display since they opened it up for the kids. We were amazed at how extensive it was with so many intricate little pieces.

 

This gentleman actually worked for the railroad and was very informative.

 

We had to chuckle at this drive-in move lot.

 

 



Inside the depot museum were a variety or train and railroad related articles and pictures. It gave us a good idea of how folks lived and worked over one hundred years ago. This shows what the depot office looked like.

Dan sat down at the controls of an old train.

 

We walked around town a little bit and saw a train pulling into the station.

 



On our way home we stopped at Chico Hot Springs Resort where we soaked in natural hot springs pools. Guests have been enjoying this pleasure since 1900. Hot water flows into it constantly so chemicals are not needed. The small pool is 103 degrees and the larger one 98. During the summer cool water is added to the swimming pool for the comfort of the guests. The hot pool is at the end under the roof.

This is the view from the small hot pool. The water flows from the small pool to the larger one.

We got a laugh from this sign by the side of the pool.

In addition to the pools are a hotel, cabins, day spa, dining room, poolside grill, and saloon. They have an abundance of summer and winter activities, and it looked like many families were enjoying all they had to offer. We certainly took pleasure in the peaceful time we spent there.