We visited Havre in September 2020, as part of Big Trip #3.

Our route from Theodore Roosevelt National Park to Glacier National Park took us across Rt 2 in northern Montana. We chose Havre as a stopover town because it seemed to have the most going on. Two breweries! Food trucks!

Campground

We stayed at the Havre RV Park, along with about four other parties across the 51 sites. Cons: The sites are short and narrow; we aren’t sure where we’d park our truck if the park were crowded and we couldn’t take over the site next door. Pros: Each site has a swath of plush grass, there’s not too much highway noise (we do run white noise machines overnight though and recommend that), and there’s a coffee shop next door! With breakfast sandwiches and soft serve ice cream! Maybe it was because the park was empty, but we thought it was delightful for a stopover. From the campground you can walk into the old-timey downtown.

Breweries

Triple Dog Brewing was our first stop, towards the end of Havre’s main drag. We were pleased to have Bugsy on the patio with us, but the beer was meh.

Old Station Brewing is in the heart of downtown Havre (so walkable from the campground) and also had a food truck. They have a great patio outside their cool old building (an old station, duh) where Bugsy again sat with us. Again the beer was meh. Maybe it was us, not them. But we were thrilled to see a bustling beer and food truck culture in such a small, out-of-the-way town.

We skipped Vizla Brewing because it’s in a mall and dogs are not allowed. And it’s in a mall.

While the beer wasn’t really for us in Havre, we were really impressed that a town of that size has three breweries!

Food

We got dinner from Streatery, the food truck in front of Triple Dog, and it was a very happy surprise! They serve seasonal, local, organic food, with the motto “farmer meets foodie.” It was wonderful to eat some veggies in advance of ice cream from the shop next to the campground.

Yep, we got ice cream. The soft serve ice cream with all sorts of toppings from 406 Roasting Co really hit the spot.

On the drive across Montana, we stopped for to-go sandwiches in Malta. The food was super crappy and not worth mentioning.

The other potentially interesting thing about Havre

If we weren’t in such a hurry to get hiking, and if there were no stupid Covid, I’d be interested in checking out Havre Beneath the Streets. It’s a tour of the underground businesses that popped up (down?) after a fire in Havre a hundred years ago.