Missoula, MT: What to See? How Long to Stay?

In My Humble Opinion
1

My girlfriend and I are planning a late spring trip to Glacier National Park (hopefully it won’t rain too much, but you roll the dice with these mountain region trips). We’re flying into and out of Missoula because we can get a direct flight to and from there from Phoenix and spending most of the trip in Whitefish.

I’m planning to spend at least the night before we fly back to Phoenix in Missoula, so we don’t have such a long drive to the airport the morning we leave. But I’m trying to figure out how long we should stay there. Our trip to Montana will be 10 nights total. How many of those should be spent in Missoula? I see Clearwater and Bitterroot National Forests are nearby. Any suggestions as to how much time we should spend in those places? What else is worth checking out in the Missoula area?

To aid your suggestions, here’s a list of our interests:
Daytime:
[ul]
[li]Hiking[/li][li]Mountain biking[/li][li]Fishing[/li][li]Ghost towns[/li][li]Museums/history[/li][li]Boating[/li][li]General outdoor sightseeing[/li][li]My girlfriend will probably want to shop at some point. Whatevs.[/li][/ul]

Nighttime:
[ul]
[li]Live music (mainly jazz, blues, or jazz/blues-inspired indie)[/li][li]Brew pubs[/li][li]Good restaurants (doesn’t gotta be pricey to be good)[/li][li]“Old west” saloons (beer & history: hard to beat that!)[/li][li]Live trivia (If we can get it! Not a top priority though)[/li][/ul]

Any suggestions are welcome and appreciated! Feel free to suggest any activities not mentioned above if you think they’re “can’t miss.”

2

Can’t help much with Missoula, as I’ve only just driven through there.

I’ve spent time in Hamilton (about 45 miles south, in the beautiful Bitterroot Valley), where I can definitely recommend the fishing - though I expect you could find some attractive trout to chase without driving anywhere near that far.

3

Oh, hey. My hometown. Some recommendations:

Do:

Greenough Park. Good place for birdwatching. You can hike or bike. Runs along a small stream.

Rattlesnake, which encompasses half a dozen hiking trails and the same number of bike paths, in addition to trails for horses and whatever. Pretty beautiful.

Mt. Sentinel, which gives you a great view of the entire valley when you’re at the top.

The Clark Fork river bisects the town. It’s sheathed on both sides by various biking and hiking trails, and you can run from one side of Missoula to the other by following along, if running or biking riverside is your kind of thing. Depending on when you go, you can see people fishing, floating or kayaking. There are plenty of outfitters to help you with each of those if that’s something you’d like to do.

Eat:

Not technically eating, but stop by the Big Sky Brewing Company for a drink. Refreshing after hiking all day, definitely.

Missoula has a ton of shitty restaurants. I’m going to recommend an especially shitty restaurant called Viva Mexico that practically nobody visits. It’s the only legit greasy spoon restaurant left in the city.

If you ask a Missoulian for a great restaurant, they’d probably recommend El Cazador, which is a small Mexican place downtown. To be honest, though, that place is insufferable and the food is mediocre and everything is tailored to attract the kind of clientele who spend hours crafting the perfect Yelp review. Avoid it. Go instead to Viva Mexico.

Wheat Montana has a delicatessen on Reserve where you can get incredible sandwiches depending on when you go. All their wheat is grown and milled locally, and the bread is baked on-site. It’s moist and delicious, and if you’ve never eaten an honest-to-God sandwich, or if you’ve purchased all your bread from a grocery story, it can be quite the experience.

Also, The Big Dipper is regularly ranked as one of the best ice cream shops in the country. Definitely stop by there if you get the opportunity.

Bars:

I should have put Bigsky Brewing Company down here. Oh well.

The Badlander will have live acts. Often Jazz. You’ll have to check their schedule.

Sean Kelly’s will have trivia.

EDIT: Miscellaneous: Butterfly Herbs downtown for tea and coffee. Bernice’s Bakery for baked goods. Good Food store for fresh, organic produce.

4

(Emphasis mine.)

Don’t tell me the Oxford is no more???!!!???

(Though it may be that the Ox no longer fits in the shitty restaurant / greasy spoon category. My father, on whom be peace, complained that the place was never the same after they swept up the sawdust and let women in.)

5

Since ghost towns and history are on your list, Deer Lodge is about 70 miles from Missoula. Deer Lodge has an abandoned prison, built in 1870 and closed in the 1970’s. Link.

We stopped there on a cross-country trip in 1990. Deer Lodge wasn’t the destination, it was the first place we found after leaving Seattle that had a motel room, and even then we had to stop and check in at noon to get a room for the night. (Don’t travel the northern tier states in the week before Sturgis. Bikers like their beds too.)

It was just like you’d expect an Old West prison to be. Creepy atmosphere, cold even on a sunny August day.

My daughter and I were standing outside, and we heard this low moaning sound. We looked at each other – WTF? Owl. :eek:

6

You could take a run up Highway 200 to Flathead Lake. Lots of hiking, etc. up there.

7

He’ll definitely be up that way when he visits Glacier Park.

Be sure to check the amazing geological history of this area. See Glacial Lake Missoula.

8

Thanks for the input so far, everyone! Lots of good suggestions here. I’ll be referring to this thread regularly as I plan the trip out.

I hope I haven’t screwed up too bad by planning this during the shoulder season. I know there will be road closings in Glacier NP and whatnot. The thing is, I couldn’t even get a hotel room in any of the places I wanted to go during the main tourist season, so I had to shift it a bit. I’ll make the best of it either way.

9

Some friends of mine used to own the Cherry Hill Hotel in Polson on Flathead Lake. I’ve only spent a couple of days in the area, but it is some gorgeous country.

10

Garnet Ghost Town is definitely worth a visit. It’s one of the best preserved ghost towns and the drive up itself is worth it, up along the Blackfoot River which so famously flows through it (so good fishing): http://www.garnetghosttown.net/

A word about “brew pubs” in Montana. Montana has some esoteric laws that relate to breweries. Big Sky, as mentioned upthread, sells too much beer commercially and only gives 3 little (IIRC) 6 oz tasters per person. But the other breweries are allowed to sell 3 full pints, but can only be open until 8pm. So some planning is required as to which of the six(!) breweries in Missoula you want to hit. The Bayern Brewery in town is one of my personal favorites-- it’s quite different from the standard west-coast style microbreweries in that it specializes in German-style lagers and marzens. The Kettlehouse is probably the best of the more standard IPA’s, Ambers and Porters microbrewery fare.

Also, if you’re into beer, driving down the Bitteroot valley is a great sidetrip. The valley itself is spectacular and there’s several great hikes up to the west. There’s also now a brewery in Hamilton and two in Stevensville which are all great. Hamilton and Stevensville also both have lots of cutesy antiquing and “rural chic” type shopping.

Oh, the Ox is very much still in business and remains a good bar to get stabbed at even as their neighbors have been gradually gentrifying. Although this is Montana, so even what’s basically the skid row bar has a spectacular selection of local beers and fairly decent food.

11

I can’t imagine being in the area and not taking the “highway to the sun” road inside Glacier. It is so incredible. Because of the views, you cannot drive slow enough. Especially great on a motosicle!
You picked a great area! Enjoy!

12

It’s actually the Going-to-the-Sun Road. And it is indeed beyond stunning - should absolutely be on everyone’s must-drive-it list.

Unfortunately, it has a limited season due to snowfall at high elevations. This site says it will open completely no sooner than June 21 of this year.

13

I’ve managed to recall the name of a very pleasant, semi-upscale restaurant near the west entrance of Glacier Park: the Three Forks Grill.

It’s in Columbia Falls, about 17 miles southwest of the park entrance.

14

Thanks for the recommendations, folks! I’m going to spend a couple of nights in Missoula (with the rest being in Whitefish) and do a few of the things you all recommended here. I was tempted to stay in Polson the last one or two nights, but Missoula is closer to more things, and I’ll be doing plenty of lake stuff the (Whitefish and Flathead) the first week of the trip, along with all the Glacier NP activities. I won’t be able to do everything you recommended, but this is great info for future visits.

15

This is just in Missoula. It’d be a lot more expansive if I included all of Northwest Montana.

[ul]
[li]Hiking–The M Trail, or to the L on Mount Jumbo. Crazy Canyon too. And Greenough Park for flat hiking. [/li][li]Mountain biking–I dunno[/li][li]Fishing–Rock Creek, about 20 miles East on I-90. This is the Mecca of fly fishing.[/li][li]Ghost towns–Garnet; the road isn’t fantastic and will be less so this time of year though.[/li][li]Museums/history–Fort Missoula, Missoula Art Museum[/li][li]Boating–I dunno[/li][li]General outdoor sightseeing–see ‘Hiking’, above[/li][li]My girlfriend will probably want to shop at some point. Whatevs.–Plenty of foofy boutiques in downtown Missoula. Plenty for me, anyway.[/li][/ul]

Nighttime:
[ul]
[li]Live music (mainly jazz, blues, or jazz/blues-inspired indie)–Union Club, Top Hat[/li][li]Brew pubs–Kettlehouse[/li][li]Good restaurants (doesn’t gotta be pricey to be good)–Biga Pizza is the best restaurant in the city.[/li][li]“Old west” saloons (beer & history: hard to beat that!)–Charlie B’s, no question[/li][li]Live trivia (If we can get it! Not a top priority though)–Tuesday’s at Sean Kelly’s, [/li][/ul]