Big Sky Resort is one of my happy places. This is Lone Peak which tops out at 11,166 feet (3403 meters). From the top you can see across Idaho and into Washington state as well as into Wyoming.
Montana
Travel Tuesday photo: Lone Peak, Big Sky, Montana
Categories: Montana, North America, Picture of the Week, United States
Tags: Big Sky, Lone Peak, Montana, Picture of the Week
Leave a comment
Lodging Review: Huntley Lodge, Big Sky, Montana (2025)
My last visit to Big Sky was in 2019, just a year before the world changed. While our most recent previous stays had been at The Summit condos, our 2019 stay and our stay this year was at the Huntley Lodge, a hotel. This building was the original lodging at the resort and is located right at the base. Our club has been trying to get back to Big Sky ever since our last visit, but employee housing has become such a difficult thing that one entire wing of the hotel has been given over to housing the workers. That’s made getting reservations quite difficult. However, this year our club attended as part of a larger group from our ski council and with roughly 175 guests we were finally able to secure rooms.
The lodge underwent renovations in 2021, so I was excited to see the upgrades since our last visit. The lobby is mostly the same and the common areas got some new carpet and wallpaper but I’ll concentrate this review on the hotel room itself.
Guest Room
The wing that is open for guests has a fairly long hallway with a dogleg about halfway down. Our room was right in the “outside” part of the dogleg. That meant the room’s layout was different from a standard rectangle hotel room and also gave us a bit more floor space, which was nice.
The bathroom was immediately on the left when entering the room. The bathroom in this configuration is not as large as the one we had in the more standard rooms but it was fine. The sink was on the right side and positioned slightly to the right, so you didn’t have to worry about squeezing between the counter and the toilet. There were two sets of ceiling lights: one over the mirror and one for the room in general, including over the shower stall. In addition, there was a button in the lower middle portion of the mirror that backlit it, though we didn’t use that at all. Though you can’t see it in the photo below, there was a make-up mirror on a wall-mounted arm that could swing out from the wall and tilt as needed. It had its own light, which was quite helpful.
Huntley Lodge Bathroom
Categories: Hotel, Lodging Review, Montana, North America, Other Hotels, United States
Tags: Big Sky, Hotel Review, Lodging Review, Montana, Ski, Ski Lodging, Skiing
Leave a comment
Lodging Review: The Huntley Lodge, Big Sky, Montana
I was back in Big Sky, Montana recently. It’s one of my favorite resorts because I love the slopes and (shh!) there are never any liftlines. They’re in the midst of a multi-year, multi-million dollar project performing upgrades all over the mountain. This year saw the addition of North America’s first 8-seat chairlift (complete with a bubble and heated seats!) and in coming years the ancient beginner lift will be replaced with a gondola that will service both beginner slopes as well as bowl skiing for advanced skiers.
In the recent past our ski club has stayed at The Summit, which is a high-rise condo right at the base of the slopes. But two years ago the property began the process of upgrading from a 4-star property to a 5-star. Though it’s only a 4.5-star at the moment, that was enough to push the pricing out of our club’s budget. I really hate that because it’s so convenient and has the best hot tub on the mountain.
So this year our club stayed at the original base lodging facility, The Huntley Lodge. Named after resort co-founder Chet Huntley (he of NBC News fame from the 1960s & 1970s; look it up, kids) it’s a 3-story hotel with half the rooms facing the slopes. Rooms in one wing are mere steps from the beginner Explorer lift while rooms in the other have the mountain village right outside the door at the end of the hall. For convenience, it’s really hard to beat.
While I have stayed here before, it had been at least 20 years so I was curious to see what had changed. The answer: not a whole lot, which is actually a good thing for the most part.
The lobby is not huge but has a fair amount of seating and, like all the common areas, has a mountain theme to the decor. I especially liked the old skiing items mounted up high.
Skiing artifacts decorating the vaulted ceiling
The dominating feature is The Bear. If you ever need a meeting point, it’s a great landmark.
Categories: Hotel, Lodging Review, Montana, North America, United States
Tags: Big Sky, Hotel Review, Lodging Review, Montana, Ski Lodging
Leave a comment
Review: Hilton Garden Inn, Bozeman, Montana
As I’ve done for the last couple of years, I flew out on a Friday for my ski trip even though the group wouldn’t arrive until Saturday. I do this because I’m in a different origin city and I want to be sure I’m not late catching the bus from the airport to the ski resort. If all my flights are on time it works out fine but at some airports I just can’t arrive before the group due to flight schedules. And with so many credit cards offering free nights I can usually spend one of those certificates although that’s not what I did in this case. I looked into using my IHG free night but by the time I got around to booking a room, the Holiday Inn Express had no more availability.
This year my first ski trip was to Big Sky, Montana, one of my favorite resorts. I believe my first visit was in 1994 and I’ve returned every 3 or so years since. On my club’s last trip here I flew up on a Friday and spent the night at the Residence Inn in Bozeman and that was when I learned they no longer had a hotel shuttle. So instead of burning my Marriott certificate here I thought I’d try out my newly minted Diamond status with a Hilton property.
I was fortunate that the cabin crew from my flight was also staying at the Hilton Garden Inn because by the time I’d collected my luggage (and kudos to the BZN baggage crew for making priority bags first on the belt!) and called the hotel, the cabin crew had called the hotel, the shuttle had arrived and they were already on board so I didn’t have to wait for the shuttle at all.
Lobby and Check-in
Since I had so much luggage to wrangle I let the flight crew check in first while I got all my bags inside. The lobby has a large seating area for breakfast on the right side and more casual seating on the left side though there’s a long table there that could be used for breakfast too.
Hilton Garden Inn Bozeman Lobby Seating
Hilton Garden Inn Bozeman Lobby Seating
Hilton Garden Inn Bozeman Breakfast Seating
Categories: Hilton, Hotel, Lodging Review, Montana, North America, United States
Tags: Bozeman, Hilton, Hilton Garden Inn, Hotel Review, Lodging Review, Montana
Leave a comment
Review: The Summit at Big Sky Resort
I love to ski and went on two trips this past ski season. The first one was to Big Sky, Montana, which is one of my very favorite places. It’s a little remote – the closest major airport is Bozeman (BZN), which is about 90 minutes away – but being a little hard to get to means it’s not crowded. And by “not crowded” I mean that if there are two groups of people in front of you in a lift line, that is a lot. They define a “busy day” as one with more than two people per skiable acre. As someone who is not overly fond of crowds, this is just fantastic for me.
My first trip to this resort was in 1994 and I’ve stayed in four different accommodations over the years since our ski club visits every 2-3 years. By far the best choice is The Summit.
View of the Summit from the slopes
Categories: Lodging Review, Montana, North America, United States
Tags: Big Sky, Lodging Review, Montana, Ski Condo, Summit
Leave a comment
2B Traveling 
Recent Comments