<p>We are heading out to Montana this summer (mid June) and wonder if any of you have any input on what to do. We have been to Yellowstone twice so we will skip it this time. Will it be to early to see much at Glacier? Would Idaho be a better bet? What about ghost towns? We will be coming from Illinois and our main destination is the Missoula area. Any recommendations on were to stay? A cabin in the woods? We probably won’t be doing any horseback riding as my husband isn’t real keen on horses. Is it too early for rafting? So far in my planning, I have us driving a long day from IL to Chamberlain, SD. Then the next day, a short detour through the Badlands, lunch in Deadwood (we did a lot of the Black Hills last year) and spending the night in Billings, Mt. The next day we would end up in Missoula and spend the rest of the day checking out the town. Any restaurant or lodging recs for Missoula? Sorry for all the questions but I have found that the people on this forum usually have good suggestions.</p>
<p>Montana isn’t bad at all. There are things to do their besides yellowstone. I do suggest you go to glacier, it should be open then. Sometimes they close some of the roads because of the snow. There is also alot of hicking to be done there.</p>
<p>I’ve been to missoula alot of times. I have one piece of advice for you. Be advised when it is around 5 pm, the traffic and congestion into walmart can be terrible.</p>
<p>I can’t really think of anything fun to be done in missoula, but you never know until you look around.</p>
<p>Hope this helps! :)</p>
<p>By the way, i lived in montana for 3 years and went to missoula quiet often. So have fun.</p>
<p>Glacier is nice. There’ll be snow at the higher elevations but I don’t know what it’d be like in mid-June. I recommend heading there to check it out regardless since you’ll be so close.</p>
<p>I went to several ghost towns in Montana but can’t remember the names of them, which I guess isn’t that useful to you other than I liked them. These were actual ghost towns where no one is currently living in them except for the ghosts. Several of them were in pretty good condition. You’d need to drive on dirt roads for most of these particular places but I think most of them were accessible in 2WD. The site linked below has a lot of info on ghost towns, how to get there, the type of road, and what’s left. (Select the state in the top left).</p>
<p>Another thing we did in Montana was to stop at a sapphire mine and go through some gravel looking for sapphires. I think it was something like $20 a bucket. It was fun and similar to going to a tourmaline mine not far from here.</p>
<p>We also did the Lewis and Clark caverns which is good.</p>
<p>On one trip there we went through western Nebraska which has a lot of interesting sites and the Oregon trail went through there. We accidentally came upon Fort Robinson state park (about 25 miles southwest of Chadron) and ended up staying the night there in the park in old officers quarters! This is the fort where Chief Crazy Horse surrendered. They’ve opened up some of the old housing and also the old barracks for people to stay. It was inexpensive and fun. We walked over to the theatre and saw a melodrama put on by students from the college in Chadron which was very good. They also have some of the old building open for touring through. We went horseback riding there, ate there, and saw some other things. If you ever find yourself in that area be sure to stop there and consider staying the night there. </p>
<p>If you haven’t been there yet, another good destination, maybe for another trip, is the Canadian Rockies from Banff National Park to Jasper National Park.</p>
<p>Check out Glacier Rafting Company ----glacierraftco.com. S and I did our 3 day, two night combo horseback-rafting trip over the 4th of July using them. It was everything promised and more. In fact, we rafted the middle fork of the Flathead River just outside Glacier and many of the rapids are featured in the movie *River Wild *that was filmed in large part on that river.</p>
<p>This was back in 1998. Ask if Rosie still works there as a river guide. If so, I’d ask for her. Great guide and superb camp cook.</p>
<p>Weather/temp? We were in wetsuits while on the river. It was fabulous when sunny and do-able when cloudy.</p>
<p>Glacier is definitely worth some time. There will be ice caves still left and the park is in the top 10 national parks as far as beauty and is the LEAST attended of those 10, so it is not wall to wall tourists.</p>
<p>My son and I went to Glacier in mid-June when he was 8. It was snowing as we went over the pass on the Going to the Sun Road–which is truly beautiful–and we got caught by a small (fortunately) avalanche, which rained rocks and snow down on our car as we drove past a snow field. It caused $1500 worth of damage to the car (in 1994) when a rock landed on the front of the hood and rolled over the top. Since then, he refers to the road as the “Going to the Afterlife Road” and we have not gone back.</p>
<p>However, the park was beautiful. We had some nice hikes and a lovely guided horseback trail ride. I was a little apprehensive about all the signs about hungry spring bears but we didn’t encounter any.</p>
<p>My favorite place in Montana (after Yellowstone, which I don’t think you can see all of in just two visits, so I’d recommend going back there) is the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman.</p>
<p>Glacier is fabulous. Lewis & Clark caverns were very cool. Virginia City is a recreated frontier town, with Montana craftsmen selling their arts and crafts (a bit touristy). Comet is an actual ghost town we visited (I just did a search and Comet has a wikipedia entry) and it’s not that far from Missoula</p>
<p>Lucky you!<br>
It’s been over 20 years since we visited (holy cow, time flies), but we loved Glacier. It was early spring and hardly anyone was there yet. AND I saw a wolverine – my single most exciting wildlife moment ever.</p>
<p>Also recommend Choteau. I worked for The Nature Conservancy at the time, and the day spent at their Pine Butte Swamp preserve was probably my favorite part of the trip.</p>
<p>Another vote for Glacier. If you are considering it at all, go make reservations IMMEDIATELY. Since the season is so short, lodging fills up very quickly. We spent time at both the Swiftcurrent Motor Inn and Many Glacier Hotel, both near lots of trailheads. Many Glacier was spectacular. The whole family would go back in a heartbeat; D1 still wants to spend a summer during college working at the park (they hire students from all over the world). You can get a nice dose of history by taking one of the Red Car tours, which allows you to ooh and aah over Going to the Sun Road without having to keep your eyes on the road, and by touring the different historical lodges. Our high point was seeing a bull moose. Oh, and the pie at Two Sisters Cafe, outside the park. </p>
<p>Missoula: there’s a good tour at the Fire Jumpers, or whatever they call those people who go and fight forest fires. Driving there from Idaho, we stopped at the Lewis and Clark monument? museum? can’t remember, too lazy to look, but interesting and beautiful.</p>
<p>Wow, thanks for all the info. dmd77, what an experience! Hope that doesn’t happen to us. I guess we will head up to Glacier and hope all the roads are open. I guess I will try to get reservations this weekend. Which area of the park do you people recommend? And at what entrance is Two Sisters Cafe? That sounds like my kind of place! lspf72- Choteau looks like a cool little town. I know we will not have enough time, there never is in these kind of places. Our daughter has an internship out there and I am so jealous!</p>
<p>We go often. Glacier is huge, mid July brings crowds, but Going to the Sun road is open!
Make sure to travel to the Canadian site - Waterton. There is a great hike starting daily in Waterton - the Crypt Lake. If you are a hiker - go for it. It is actually on the list of ten most beautiful hikes in Canada.
I also second suggestion of travelling further to Banff and Jasper, seeing Lake Louise. The water in those lakes has spectacular color.</p>
<p>Going to the Sun Highway is spectacular, but it might not have opened yet by early June. When I rode across the US by bike in 2006, we hit Glacier in early June, planning to ride Going to the Sun, but it was still closed and we had to take another route. I went back summer to ride it.</p>
<p>If you do go over Going to the Sun, do not miss the Park Cafe on the east side in St. Mary. Their pie is the stuff of cyclists’ dreams.</p>
<p>We flew into Billings on a trip to Yellowstone and the Tetons once. We didn’t give a thought to spending much time anywhere else in Montana. Boy, were we sorry! It’s truly Big Sky Country, and it’s on my list of places to go next. I did visit Glacier NP way back in high school, and it’s gorgeous. Have fun!</p>