MONTANAG U I D O K Unf GeAble Road Trips in the Big Sky State
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E B O MONTANAG U I D O K Unfgeable road trips in the Big Sky state Discer yr BROUGHT TO YOU BY WITH VISIT MONTANA B I G S K Y COUNTRY BECKONS FLATHEAD LAKE, NORTHWEST MONTANA CANADA GLACIER ROUTE 1 NATIONAL PARK Kootenai ROUTE 7 Falls Whitefish TWO 2 MEDICINE Havre LAKE Glasgow Kalispell Malta Essex ROUTE 9 Fort 2 15 Benton MISSOURI 191 FLATHEAD RIVER LAKE ROUTE 2 35 FORT PECK RESERVOIR Great Falls Glendive ROUTE 5 Missoula Lewistown NORTH DAKOTA Helena MISSOURI IDAHO RIVER YELLOWSTONE RIVER 94 Miles City Hamilton Butte Bozeman ROUTE 6 ROUTE 3 90 Billings ROUTE 8 Livingston Big Sky Red Lodge ROUTE 4 Gardiner 15 West Yellowstone YELLOWSTONE SOUTH DAKOTA NATIONAL WYOMING PARK Produced for MONTANA DELIVERS Visit Montana and Travel+Leisure T E N ON ITS NICKNAME, O N T by Meredith Travel C S Marketing Content Studio with vast overhead expanses 4 framing dramatic landscapes, ROUTE 1 Visit Montana Peak to Peak Glacier including two spectacular MARKETING DIRECTOR Views Patty White national parks—Yellowstone 6 CONSUMER MARKETING and Glacier. To help you ROUTE 2 MANAGER explore this epic state, Visit Land of Lakes and Raylee Honeycutt Mountains Montana and Travel+Leisure CONTENT MANAGER 8 Jacquie Garcia have partnered to spotlight ROUTE 3 unforgettable journeys Town and Country that deliver like-no-other 10 EDITORIAL CONTENT experiences and the best of ROUTE 4 DIRECTOR Big Sky Exploration Kylee Krizmanic the American West. 12 CREATIVE DIRECTOR ROUTE 5 Mary-Beth Rouse Here, you’ll ply sparkling glacial Heart of Montana E B G U I D O O K SENIOR EDITOR lakes and climb rocky mountain Discoveries Ginger Crichton MONTANA faces. Walk where dinosaurs Unfgeable road trips in the Big Sky state 14 ASSOCIATE ART once roamed and legendary ROUTE 6 DIRECTOR battles were waged. Watch Wonders of Allison Zelle Yellowstone Country cowboys kick up clouds of COPY EDITORS 16 Madelaine dust. Lift glistening trout from ROUTE 7 Jerousek-Smith, Discer yr teeming streams. Raft down Home on the Plains Diane Penningroth mighty rivers. And gaze upon 18 CONTRIBUTING WRITER ROUTE 8 BROUGHT TO YOU BY WITH VISIT MONTANA night skies that suggest the Ann Marie Brown Echoes of History entire universe is within reach. PHOTOGRAPHERS ON THE COVER 20 Andy Austin, pages On the following pages, find ROUTE 9 11, 17, 18; Ryan Donnell, The Milky Way glitters Wild and Scenic pages 7, 9, 10; in the night sky above nine itineraries plus a winter Great Plains Ryan Resatka, pages 4, 6; a hiker in the rugged samspicerphoto-stock guide to help you make your 22 .adobe.com, page 14; Bitterroot Mountains. own Montana moments—the Coolest Season Starboard and Port, Adventures pages 17, 20, 21; kind that linger long after Visit Montana, pages 1, the trip is over. 2, 9, 12, 22, 23, 24. MONTANA GUIDEBOOK 3 E S T M H W O N T R T A O N N A PEAK TO P E A K GLACIER VIEWS The thrilling Going-to-the-Sun Road twists through the heart of Glacier National Park, where a million acres hold rewards for explorers of every kind. Bookend your visit to the park with stays in two mountain towns: Kalispell and Whitesh. LAKE JOSEPHINE ROUTE 1 ROUND-TRIP FROM AIRPORT BLACKFEET Many Glacier Hotel INDIAN 275 MILES RESERVATION GLACIER 89 NATIONAL PARK Logan Pass LAKE MCDONALD TWO MEDICINE LAKE Whitefish West KICK THINGS OFF IN KALISPELL, THE Glacier TRAVEL HUB for Glacier National Park and Montana’s 2 Flathead Valley. This culturally vibrant city has a secret stash of engaging museums. Spend a few hours eyeing distinctively Montana Essex art at the Hockaday Museum of Art, housed in a 1904 Carnegie Library building. Galleries showcase Winold Reiss’ vivid Blackfeet Indian portraits and Charles M. Russell’s dime-novel cowboys and trappers, as well as works by contemporary Montana artists. Kalispell Then visit the palatial Conrad Mansion Museum, built in the early 1890s by architect Kirtland Cutter, mastermind of Glacier’s Lake McDonald Lodge. This 26-room manor (sandstone fireplaces, fragile alpine wildflowers. Furry white mountain goats nibble tundra Italian onyx drinking fountains, leaded glass windows) was owned by grasses alongside the trail, unfazed by your presence. Kalispell founder Charles Conrad, who may be largely responsible for From the summit, Going-to-the-Sun Road descends through pine saving America’s wild bison. When only about 100 remained on the and aspen groves. Stop at Jackson Glacier Overlook to view one of continent, Conrad corralled his private herd on Kalispell’s Bualo Hill, the park’s 26 remaining glaciers, reduced from 150 nearly a century and the animals later repopulated the National Bison Range in Moiese. ago. The road swoops down to St. Mary Lake, passing one trailhead Before leaving town, nab a seat at DeSoto Grill and sample beef after another, each an intriguing question mark—what lies down brisket and elk sausage. Then cruise northeast on U.S. 2 to Apgar, that path? Glacier’s 700-plus miles of trails lead to waterfalls, lakes, where Lake McDonald glimmers at the base of glacier-carved peaks. meadows and vistas—plus blue-ribbon angling, boating and camping. TURN TO THE SUN Check in at seasonally open Lake McDonald LAKE VIEWS FOR DAYS Check in at the imposing Many Lodge, its massive timbers held up by historic integrity. In classic Glacier Hotel on Swiftcurrent Lake; book a year ahead to score a 1913 style, rooms are cozy except for the luxurious Cobb Suites. No lake-view balcony. From the hotel’s veranda, marvel at Grinnell Point matter—you’ll want to spend the evening in the Great Room beneath towering over the lake’s emerald depths. Place yourself in the middle glowing Indian-motif chandeliers and a menagerie of trophy animal of this postcard by gliding across the lake on the Chief Two Guns heads. Even in summer, flames flicker in the tea-party-size rock boat, then board a second boat that traverses Lake Josephine. You fireplace. Daylight hours will draw you to the veranda, where Lake can stroll back to the hotel or follow the path to Grinnell Lake, its McDonald’s 10-mile-long expanse spreads toward the horizon. Rent glacial-melt waters a stunning milky teal. a kayak at the dock or take a sunset cruise on the historic wooden Drive south from Many Glacier about 55 miles to Two Medicine vessel DeSmet, which has plied these waters since 1930. Lake, a region of rugged grandeur. Take a short ramble to Running In the morning, grab a 7 a.m. espresso for a head start on the Eagle Falls before arriving at the glacier-gouged lake, then hop on the soul-shaking splendor of the Going-to-the-Sun Road. The 50-mile boat taxi to shave a couple miles o the trek to electric-blue Cobalt route begins in ancient cedar forest, then gradually climbs out of Lake. Watch for bighorn sheep as you ascend past Rockwell Falls. This the conifers to deliver some of the West’s most magnificent asphalt is Glacier’s wild interior, where megafauna outnumber people. driving. Going-to-the-Sun’s narrow ribbon—an engineering marvel Cross over Marias Pass, then head into Essex for a meal at the dedicated in 1933—passes a string of vistas as it carves along the atmospheric Izaak Walton Inn, set at waving distance from passing Garden Wall’s escarpment. Snake up The Loop’s sole curlicue Amtrak trains. Built in 1939 to house workers tending the Great switchback and slip underneath the Weeping Wall’s showering Northern Railway’s far-flung lines, the inn rents refurbished cabooses cataract (free car wash) on the way up to Logan Pass, a climactic for overnight stays. Wander its tranquil grounds, then hit up 6,646-foot summit on the Continental Divide’s crest. It’s easy to see The Dining Car restaurant for elk meatballs and huckleberry cobbler. why the Blackfeet Indians, whose Blackfeet Indian Reservation sits ELEVATED EATS AND SIPS Follow the Middle Fork Flathead just east of Glacier, called this The Backbone of the World. River back to West Glacier, then swing southwest to Whitefish. On Park the car and visit the Logan Pass Visitor Center, then walk to Big Mountain, Whitefish Mountain Resort oers some of Montana’s Hidden Lake Overlook amid a banquet of snaggletooth peaks and best winter skiing, but summer has its own thrills—30-plus miles of mountain bike trails and an exhilarating zipline. To get out on the EXTEND YOUR STAY water, rent a kayak or paddleboard from Paddlefish Sports on City Drive the scenic 90-mile Seeley-Swan Beach to explore Whitefish Lake. Downtown’s walkable enclave is Highway (MT-83) connecting the Flathead saturated with galleries, including Sunti World Art Gallery, home to and Blackfoot valleys to Seeley Lake. Along acclaimed sculptor Sunti Pichetchaiyakul. Then choose your spot for the way, explore Swan Lake National Wildlife sophisticated dining. Abruzzo Italian Kitchen attracts a chic crowd Refuge. In Seeley Lake, 16-ounce steak with artisan cocktails, from-scratch pasta and shared plates. Bonsai dinners await at Lindey’s Prime Steak House. Brewing Project’s critically acclaimed beers include Lil Blond Settle into a lakefront cabin at Tamaracks Honey—made with Montana honey, of course. This might just be Resort, which dates to the early 1900s. the perfect drink to toast the end of your Glacier road trip. MONTANA GUIDEBOOK 5 E S T M H W O N T R T A O N N A LANDOF LAKES AND MOUNTAINS The vast expanse of Flathead Lake, cradled by sky-high peaks, is one of northwest Montana’s most iconic features.