Travel advice: Montana edition

Possibly spending some time out there next summer, and it's never too early to start planning. I know there are some here who are very familiar with Montana -- and I've reached out to some -- but I figured I'd go ahead and start a thread, too.

I imagine we'll be interested in doing the typical tourist stuff: hiking, boating, fishing, drinking on a lake or some other body of water. Looking at perty mountains. All that. But we also want to be near civilization. I'm told Missoula is a perfect spot that is close to anything we'd want to do.

What say you, #TravelSJ?

 

You can visit the Unabomber's shack in DC. I think it is at the Newseum. That should give you a good feel for what Montana is like before you go.

 

Missoula is fabulous. Depends on what you're looking to do. Did a three-day trip there for a football game a few years back and crammed a decent amount in, none of which included gambling at one of the six Indian casinos within a block of my hotel. There's a ton of outdoorsy stuff to do, even just inside the city. I hiked the mountain behind the football stadium the day before the game, and you get great views without having to go far from campus. Did a good amount of bar hopping, starting Big Sky Brewing's tasting room and moving on to places like Iron Horse, Rhino, Red's and some place else downtown that I can't remember. There are solid dining options, like Depot. Guarantee that there's at least one member who can shine a larger light on Missoula, but that's a starting point.

 

Hoo boy. Indian casinos, eh?

 

There is some kind of "casino" at every exit along I-90 in Montana, or so it seems. If you are driving up from Sheridan on I-25, stop at Little Bighorn Battlefield. Next to Gettysburg and Antietam, it's the coolest battlefield I've ever visited. It looks the same as it did on 6/25/1876.

PS: Make sure you have gas. You don't want to get much below 1/4 tank because sometimes it's a long ways between interstate exits.

 

The gas recommendation is key. One of the dumbest things I ever got involved with was leaving Ridgecrest, CA, headed to Death Valley, with only a quarter tank of gas. I was with two idiots who could have killed all of us.

 

Glacier National Park is a must (I highly encourage the Avalanche Lake hike), the National Bison Reserve is okay, but when I went there didn't see many bison - left there went about a mile down the road and saw a ranch with about 100 of them.

 

I agree about Glacier National Park. I haven't been there yet, but I hear that it's expected to not have any glaciers in the not so distant future, so I would do it soon. A lot of it is open only during a narrow window of the summer though, so you have to time it right.

 

I checked the Newseum website, and the Unabomber house and FBI exhibit (which includes a lot on the Lindbergh baby case) all go off exhibit in July 6th 2015. I highly recommend it.

They took down the Tim Russert office exhibit. Not sure if that reopened somewhere else, was returned to WRC Channel 4 or what. MTP hasn't been the same without him. Had a friend at WRC when that happened. Sucks. Way too soon. Go Buffalo.

UPDATE: FBI/Unabomber goes off exhibit on July SIXTH 2015.

 

My brother-in-law lived in Boozeman, which was an ok town with a couple good places to eat. He brought us to Yellowstone for two nights, which was amazing. We took a couple day drives into the mountains too. Would love to go back and spend more time there.

 

Glacier NP is fantastic. A must see. Hike if you get the chance. Watch for bears. Them bastards are sneaky.
Stay at Lake McDonald Lodge, home of the narrowest damn toilet stalls in the country. Beautiful setting. If you have a wide ass, plan on using the loo somewhere else.

Kalispell is pretty cool.

 

If you take I-40 west from the Arizona border, there's only one gas station for 150 miles between Needles and Barstow, in Ludlow, I believe. At least there was when I used to drive out that way. You don't want to get caught low out there, since they jack the price up something miserable to punish doofuses. Some of the most wide-open country I've ever driven.