Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
From the towering pines and massive cedar trees to the mountain of huckleberry ice cream
clinging to your cone, just about everything is larger than life in western Montana. The
craggy Mission Mountains beside Flathead Lake and the Bitterroots, just south of Missoula,
are but two of the ranges that make up the spine of the Rockies in this lush, green corner
of Montana, the only place in the state that boasts some promising wineries. The area is
home to three Native American tribes on one major reservation, an assortment of fascinat-
ing wildlife refuges, the National Bison Range, and towns such as Missoula, the ever-grow-
ing home of the University of Montana, and Whitefish, a skiing and water-sports mecca on
the outskirts of Glacier National Park. Western Montana is steeped in Western history, from
Lewis and Clark to the Nez Perce Indians and the state's earliest missions, and is home to
the state's fastest-growing area, the Bitterroot Valley. Western Montana feels like the Pa-
cific Northwest in some ways—lush greenery, ancient trees, snowcapped peaks, and, rather
unfortunately, the scars of hyper-ambitious logging, which often led to catastrophic wild-
fires that, as recently as 1910, devoured entire cities in a matter of minutes.
