Missoula, Montana
July 5-11, 2014
Breweries, Buddhists, and Beauty, these three words sum up our stay in the clear mountain skies of Missoula. Who would have thought that this Montana town is another great spot to get away from the hustle and bustle of big city life but with all the amenities that one needs to live a life of Montana luxury? We arrived on Saturday and dutifully found a local brewery to watch the World Cup. Futbol and fresh brewed beer, it doesn’t get much better than that! After our drinking was over we called it a day, some days are busier than others, what can I say. We awoke refreshed and did a town drive of Missoula, home to the University of Montana, which is why the little town has a handful of local breweries, a downtown full of swanky shops, and side streets with plenty of good food. A wide river, the Clark Fork River, runs through downtown splitting the town in two and adding ambiance while eating or drinking riverside.
Staying just outside of town afforded us with an easy path to the National Bison Range. Because it was less than an hour drive we loaded up for a fun filled day of exploration. On the way to the Range we passed a nice Buddhist monastery, the Garden of the One Thousand Buddhas, so we swung in to see what in the chant was going on. We walked amongst the 1000 Buddhas and enjoyed the surrounding scenery and then were once again headed to the range. However, an interesting fact is that they chose the location of this Buddhist garden because it sits in a valley surrounded by 360 degrees of mountains, thus symbolizing the center of an open lotus flower. The founder of this monastery, a native Tibetan Monk, had a vision of this place when he was a very young child and found it later in life while visiting America. Thus the land was donated to him and the peace garden emerged. Pretty cool, huh.
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The National Bison Range is a national monument and contains some of the most impressive driving wildlife views we have ever seen. Bison, longhorn sheep, deer (both mule and whitetail), pronghorn, and elk where available for gawking from the car and a few trails in the park. We ran across some truly majestic elk, which I aptly named the ‘Godfather’. The park was unique in that it is mostly a drive (3-4 hours) with natural wildlife lurking just outside the windows.
After returning to our site we noticed we had a big delivery happen when we were gone, our new window awnings! Thus, installing window awnings would consume our next two days. They ended up being a great RV upgrade! More shade equals less A/C and that means a ton less noise. It was a win-win with only one minor set back. Of the three window awnings one was manufactured the wrong way and was promptly returned to sender.
Thursday we drove up to and around FLathead Lake gawking at all the tourist and summer fun. The lake houses a fair amount of lakeside cherry farms. We of course helped support the local economy. We found another brewery, Tamarack Brewing Company (Montana likes micro brews! And so do we!) to eat and relax at for a bit before we slowly headed back to camp.
When morning arrived we were both still tired from our day at the lake so we found a local hot spring to wash away our troubles. It’s what the locals’ call a real hot spot…get it? Oh never mind. From Lolo hot springs we dropped by Travelers Rest, a well known Lewis and Clark camp, and then got some homemade ice cream from the Big Dipper for supper. What a life everyone is living out here and we are happy to stick around for a bit, but we know we will have to head south at some point…after all winter is coming.
Spoiler Alert: Our next posts will be about one of our all time favorite spots in the WORLD!! 406. Love.
