Montana. We took the Huckleberry Ferry on our way to deliciousness.

Montana, also known as the Big Sky State. Montana’s name originated from the Spanish word “mountainous”. Montana is the fourth largest state, yet is the forty-fourth most populated. Montana is covered by 28 million acres of public lands and 53 state park which makes up about 30% of the state. One of these is Yellowstone National Park, where we traveled in 2019.

After spending 5 days in the park, we ended our trip by spending a night in Gardiner, Montana. The highlight of our stay in Montana was a horse ride and cowboy cookout at "Hell's A-Roarin' Ranch." We started with a 1-hour horseback ride where we learned that my dad is allergic to horses. When we got back to the ranch, we were greeted with a delicious steak dinner with baked beans, potato salad, and huckleberry ice cream for dessert.

While in Gardiner, we stayed on the ground floor of our hotel which was known as the "animal level." It was called this not because of the wild people that stayed on the level, but because you always had to look out your window before walking out to the patio since elk roam wherever they please.

Since elk were so abundant in Mammoth / Hot Springs and Gardiner, we chose to grill up some elk steaks with a side of huckleberry ice cream. Where else can we find elk steak but the Meat Lodge in Sioux Falls. Since a single steak was $20, we optioned for buying just one to share and making some beef steaks too.

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We started by marinating the lone Elk steak in a mixture of brown sugar, steak seasoning, ground pepper, olive oil, soy sauce (which Dad spilled on the counter more than once), whiskey, and mustard. Once everything was incorporated, we put the marinade and elk steak into a plastic bag to marinade for a few hours. We also threw in a couple beef steaks.

Our huckleberry ice cream sat in the freezer.

When the steak had finished marinating, me and dad went out to the grill and put the elk steaks on the grill along with the three cow steaks. Every three minutes we quarter turned the steaks to, as dad puts it, “get those nice grill lines”. After the quarter turning, we pulled the steaks off the grill and got ready to serve them.

And our huckleberry ice cream continued to sit in the freezer.

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Now I know why Mom doesn't like to cut onions.

We made some mashed potatoes and bacon green beans to go with the elk and beef steaks. Mom's green beans have bacon, butter, onions, and parmesan cheese mixed in. Onions are annoying to cut since they release fumes that make your eyes water.

Mom also taught me to make gravy. Its simple. Put gravy mix in pan, add water to pan, let simmer. Once our 'taters were mashed, our beans were greened, and our gravy was done simmering, we served everything up and dug in.

After the steaks were served, we dug in. But of course I had to be the one to get the first bite. The steaks were rather chewy, but with the addition of the marinade they had a sweet flavor to them. I would love to have these again, but I may not have them in the immediate future due to their cost.

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Later that night we finally had the huckleberry ice cream. I first had huckleberry ice cream in Yellowstone. And then again at "Hell's A-Roarin.'" And a third time at the Wells Blue Bunny Ice Cream Parlor in Le Mars, Iowa. Huckleberries are a Wyoming / Montana delicacy so who knew you could get it in Iowa too?

My parents took a trip to Le Mars to pick up some ice cream for dessert. And on that note, the ice cream was great! It had blueberries mixed in with it that blended with and also brought out the huckleberry flavor.

If you want to try the elk steaks for yourself, first visit the Meat Lodge in Sioux Falls. Then check out this recipe: Whiskey Grilled Elk Steaks

After your trip to Sioux Falls, swing past the Wells Blue Bunny Ice Cream Parlor for some ice cream!