Western Montana

Wondering what to do, the two of us decided to try the boat tour up the Missouri River at Gates of the Mountains. The tour takes you down the Missouri River from Holter Lake through the “Gates of the Mountains” - first explored by Lewis and Clark in 1805 and named as such due to the fact that the mountains and cliffs that rise above the edges of the Missouri look like gates from afar. As you ride down the Missouri, your tour guide on the boat fills the experience with various tidbits and stories that we both found incredibly interesting.

Stopping in at the gas station the other day, I about fell out of my (driver’s) seat when I looked at the total. I’m pretty sure it equaled my daughter’s college savings. Wow…with gas prices these days, no wonder people are putting summer vacation plans on hold. My family and I had plans of driving to Yellowstone and beyond, but now I think we’ll just do a staycation and stay local. What’s a staycation, you ask? Instead of leaving home for vacation, you stay at home for vacation. You can take a week off and enjoy the sights and attractions your community offers, or you can just do activities over several weekends. If you’re interested in a staycation, too, take a look at this list of things to do!

Many Montanans - myself included - don’t realize that Southwest Montana is home to its own botanical gardens. But it does! Located just a few minutes off Interstate 15 near Jefferson CIty lies the Tizer Gardens, home to a variety of plants, flowers, and short walking trails. My mother, being very much into gardening, heard about the place and decided to head down with me (that is, she insisted that I come with her, as I am not usually into these sorts of things!).

Take me out to the ball game; take me out to the crowd! Located immediately to the west of the Orange Street Bridge in Missoula is the town’s spectacular baseball diamond, Ogren Park at Allegiance Field. This home baseof the Missoula Osprey—our very own minor league baseball team—not only offers crowd pleasing fun and excitement for friends and family, but going to a ball game is the perfect excuse to get out with your special someone and share a date night under the big sky.

Beavertail Hill State Park is a quick trip about 25 miles east of Missoula, right off Interstate 90, at Exit 130. The campground is just one-quarter mile south of the highway. You can see the Fishing Pond, which is immediately to the north of the highway. This is actually the Beavertail Hill Fishing Access Site, and not part of the State Park. This is a SUPER spot for youngsters to fish from shore. I’ll get back to the Fish Pond later on, but on to the Campground!

I was on the return leg of a short trip on Highway 200 and decided to take a side trip to Garnet, the well-preserved, goldminer-era Ghost town. There are some spectacular views along the drive which is all uphill, and I took advantage of a beautiful day to shoot some photos too.

The secrets of the west have attracted people to Montana throughout history. Some came by train; others traversed the rugged landscape by horseback or covered wagon. And what were they coming for? The big sky, the land, the mountains? How about gold, silver, even Sapphires? There is a place in western Montana where still today anxious prospectors are plunging there screens into a trough of cloudy water and sifting though gravel and earth in search of the ever prized sapphire. And guess what, not only are they finding the brilliant gems, but you can too.

We took a trip in late May to Glacier National Park. I was pretty excited to see the glaciers since they’re melting and are on track to be completely gone by 2030, so I wanted to see them before they melted away. It was still pretty early in the season so there was a lot of snow in the mountains and over the trails to the glaciers. I figured since my boyfriend and I were not going to make the trek in the snow that we had to do something in order for me to achieve my wish to see the glaciers. So I broke out of my normal vacation mold of planning and budgeting everything and spontaneously told my boyfriend to pull into the Glacier Heli Tours.

hould have been near where the falls where. There was no sign but the guardrail separated and a path headed down the hill where I could see rushing water. I climbed down the steep hill for a few feet and decided the path was a little more than I could handle and I headed back, so I still have not seen the falls. We got back on the highway and continued to head home. Although we had a few mishaps, like not being able to find the falls and that darn eagle flying away, it was an enjoyable drive with lots of beauty. If you are interested in driving the highway 56 you can connect from highway 2 east of Troy or highway 200 west of Noxon. The highway is about 35 miles in length.

I have always been fascinated by old cars, so on a vacation to Glacier National Park I decided that my boyfriend and I were going to take a tour on the Red Jammer, or the Red Bus as most people call them. The buses are called Red Jammers because they originally had manual transmissions and the drivers could be heard jamming the gears as they drove around the park.