bad reviews

Bad reviews of Yellowstone National Park are almost something we enjoy reading these days. So many of them are based on such foolish complaints - the fickleness of Mother Nature, not enough wildlife on demand, or perhaps too much steam coming out of a geyser.

The Bozeman area is packed with great restaurants and the industry can be cutthroat for attracting business. However, we discovered some reviews online that only reinforce the notion of "go see for yourself" and "don't believe everything you read".

It's a good thing most people know not to trust every online review you read about a local business. Recently, there have been some elaborate, yet oddly non-specific, extremely negative reviews for some reputable Bozeman area restaurants.

Let's be clear: these people are not our kind of people. If they didn't have something to complain about, they'd have nothing to say at all. Yellowstone National Park has experienced early season high traffic, followed by historic flood damage this year.

Put plainly, I think perhaps people are getting pissed about paying hundreds of dollars per night for a middle-of-the-road hotel room around Bozeman. It seems that there are more and more fairly bad reviews of even our well thought of establishments.

When the Lewis & Clark Caverns State Park opens for the season, it's one of the classic must-do excursions for out-of-town friends and family. But know, Karen thinks it sucks.

I'm guessing our jam-packed tourist season is to blame for most of these (sort of) ridiculous bad reviews. They say more about a Bozeman attitude than anything about the actual establishment. That's pretty unfair in my opinion.