Western Montana

The Alberton Gorge

The Clark Fork narrows into a canyon west of Missoula, and for a few miles in summer it’s the best whitewater near town: class III, big splashy waves, warm water by July, and nothing that requires experience. Half-day trips put in at Cyr and take out at Tarkio; a full day adds a lunch stop and a swim. Kids from about eight are fine on the standard trips.

I have been down the gorge about fifteen times over twenty-five years and I still look forward to it. It is a good mix: the scenery, the bald and golden eagles you see more often than you would expect, and then the rapids, with the heat of the summer against how cold the river stays.

Fly fishing the Blackfoot

The river from the movie, and it earns it. A guided float is two anglers to a boat with a guide rowing, and it’s the right way in for people who’ve never held a fly rod: the guide sets you up, ties the flies, and puts the boat where the fish are. Native cutthroat, plus browns, and dry flies in July.

The catch is the heat. In hot, low-water summers the state closes the Blackfoot to fishing from 2pm to midnight, so an early start isn’t optional, and by mid-August it’s worth asking the outfitter whether another river is fishing better.

Growing up we spinner fished, almost entirely. My brother Korey has turned into a good fly fishing guide over the years, and he spent the summers of 2025 and 2026 teaching me the basics, so I am a beginner at this part myself.

Horseback with Rugg's Outfitting

A half-day ride out of Superior is the version most first-time groups want: a couple of hours in the saddle on trails in the Lolo National Forest, gentle horses matched to riders, and back in time for lunch. Nobody in my wife’s family had ridden before and everyone did it.

The rides are my brother Kip’s side of the business, and he is the real thing: a mountain man who has spent his life in this country and knows it the way most people know their own street.

The longer trips, one night to a week, run out of the family's off-the-grid lodge up Fish Creek. These sit about halfway between do-it-yourself camping and glamping: still rugged, usually pup tents, but with a pack string to carry everything in and out and a guide to set up camp and do the cooking, so you can relax and enjoy it. Those are what you add when a group wants more of the remote back country.

Glacier

Glacier is about two and a half hours north of Missoula, so it’s either a long day or, better, an overnight. Going-to-the-Sun Road is a good reason to go on its own: it is a spectacular drive.

The access rules move around. For several years the park required a timed vehicle reservation, roughly 6 or 7am to 3pm depending on the year. In 2026 it dropped those and tried something else: a three-hour parking limit at Logan Pass and a shuttle you need a ticket for, which costs a nominal dollar rather than being a paid tour. The right strategy depends on the time of year, the crowds, and whatever the park is trying that season.

In August 2025 my daughter and I went up last minute, without a car reservation. We drove up in the afternoon, checked into Glacier Campground and set up a tent for her while I took a small cabin, then went into the park after 3pm, when no reservation was needed. We drove Going-to-the-Sun Road, hiked around Logan Pass, and came back out to the campground for the night.

The next morning we were in the park by about 6:30, before the reservation window opens, and started up the Avalanche Lake trail as it was getting light. A quick trip, and we missed most of the crowds.

There is a lot more to Glacier than I have seen. I am spoiled: I have had access to a lot of Montana and Idaho back country where you can go a whole day without passing anyone, so the crowds at Glacier have always been a reason to keep my trips there short and stick to the highlights. If you want to see more of it, say so and I will research the parts that are off the well-trodden paths.

Wildlife

Wildlife here is hit and miss, and I would not build a trip around it. On a short visit you might see very little beyond deer by the road at dusk. The odds go up sharply in two places. The Bison Range is fenced, so the bison are always there, and the rest of the wildlife is there because it is a large protected place with nobody living in it. The other is Glacier, where the road and the trails run through country that holds more of everything.

What you can reasonably expect to see, and what counts as a good day:

Huckleberries

Huckleberries ripen at elevation from mid-July into August, and picking them is a legitimate activity, not a detour: a forest road, a bucket, and an hour on a hillside.

They do not domesticate. People have tried for a century, and the plants want the mountain soil and the altitude they grew up in, so there is no such thing as a huckleberry farm. Every berry you eat here was picked by hand out of the woods, which is why whole families go out for them.

They look like a small blueberry and taste like a sharper one: darker, tarter, more of everything. A pie made from them does not taste like a blueberry pie.

When they ripen moves around. The low slopes come on first and the high country can run into September, so a bad week down low is often a good week a thousand feet up. A late spring frost can push the whole season back or take it out altogether.

There are plenty of places to pick, but as friendly as Montanans are, asking a local for their spot will get you a frown or two. Ask Kip or Korey and they might point you at some good picking.

A few of the small-town celebrations are built around the berry, with a festival and a pie contest. They are in the list of small-town days below.

Watch the labels if you are buying from a gift shop. A lot of what is sold as huckleberry is huckleberry flavoring. The real thing says wild-picked. The St. Regis Travel Center off I-90 is a favorite of ours for gifts, and its huckleberry ice cream has been a required checklist item for my daughter on every single visit.

In August 2025 we got up there late in the season and still picked enough, which turned into a homemade huckleberry pie, a batch of hand pies, and a sauce that went over pancakes one morning and cheesecake the next.

If you are short on time, or too late in the season, you can usually buy wild-picked berries at the Missoula farmers markets, which run twice a week through the summer.

Flathead Lake and cherries

Cherries are the other thing to time a visit around. The orchards along the east shore of Flathead Lake ripen from late July into August, and the stands sell them by the bag along Highway 35, with several places where you can pick your own.

The lake is worth the drive on its own. It is the largest natural freshwater lake west of the Mississippi in the lower 48, about thirty miles long, and the loop road around it takes a couple of hours without stops, which nobody manages. The dam at the south end, below Polson, is worth a look: it was Kerr Dam until the tribes bought it in 2015, and it is the Seliš Ksanka Qlispé Dam since.

The Flathead Cherry Festival in Polson, at the end of July, is in the list of small-town days below.

The Fourth of July

If the week includes the Fourth, it includes fireworks. Consumer fireworks are legal in most of western Montana, though not inside Missoula city limits, and a barbecue with fireworks as soon as it gets dark is a family tradition. Fire restrictions can shut it down in a dry year, and most small towns put on their own shows that are worth seeing too, so doing your own does not happen every year. Most years it does.

Small-town summer days

Every town within a hundred miles of Missoula has one weekend a summer when it puts on a parade, a rodeo, a pancake breakfast, or all three. They're not tourist events, which is the point. If I know your dates I'll tell you which ones you can hit; if you have flexibility, I'll tell you which ones to plan around.

Dates move a little from year to year, so check before you plan a day around one.

Elevation: Mapzen Terrain Tiles on AWS. Roads, rivers and lakes © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Missoula

Missoula is a university town of 75,000, and it is where the week starts and ends. It has more good restaurants than it has any right to, and a couple of things worth an hour if you have one.

The M is the hike everyone does: a switchbacked climb up the face of Mount Sentinel behind the university, steep enough to feel it and short enough to do before breakfast. The whole valley is laid out from the top.

A Carousel for Missoula sits by the river at Caras Park, hand-carved by people in town over years, with a playground next to it. If you have anyone small along, this is the easy win.

The Western Montana Fair runs the second week of August: a real rodeo, 4-H barns full of kids showing steers, a midway, and the kind of food you only eat once a year. If your week is in August this is a night, not a whole day. If you missed the powwow, frybread usually turns up at the fair too, and the Viking is worth trying, a handmade spiced meatball served on a stick.

The restaurants below are the ones I send people to.