Western Montana Getaways

By MICHAEL JAMISON of the Missoulian

WHITEFISH – There’s a blaze burning atop Big Mountain, flowery flames of fireweed torching red against bright blue sky.

The ember-tipped stalks reach hip-high amid crackling dry grass, a riot of scarlet blossoms kindled by sunlight.

“It’s been pretty dry,” said Jessie Bebb, “and so the flowers aren’t exactly right at their peak.”
Still, she said, the explosion of color is painting a brilliant mountain landscape, a dazzling foreground for the tremendous views spreading across the Flathead Valley’s background.

The rock concert is a well-known local secret tucked away on Bureau of Land Management property between Butte and Whitehall. Known as the Ringing Rocks, it’s a geologic wonder that’s present in the United States only around this 160-acre site and in eastern Pennsylvania.

Picture yourself in a canoe, drifting lazily along a picturesque, meandering stream, lined by lush vegetation, listening to the music of warblers and the laugh of loons, soaking in the bouquet of wildflowers, watching for muskrats, minks, western painted turtles and a fleeting glimpse of a shy white-tailed deer on the shore.

Now a trail along the south side of the Clark Fork River between Orange Street and Hellgate Canyon, the former rail line is home to nine rock-and-bronze markers telling a bit of the history of Missoula. A 10th marker is on the north bank, just below the Higgins Avenue Bridge, near the site of Missoula's first lumber mill and grist mill.

The town of Bannack was a contender, its rise meteoric. And just as quickly, its downfall precipitous.

Back in 1862, the mining town burst into existence in southwestern Montana when John White discovered gold in Grasshopper Creek, the first major gold discovery in the territory.

Here's a car-camping trip from Missoula that has something for almost everybody.

It offers lots of sightseeing on seldom-traveled country roads that take you back in time. Or you can fish for kokanee salmon and trout if you are so inclined. Finally, there is a spectacular vista from an overlook above some mountain lakes and a worm's-eye view of a 140-foot waterfall. Plus there's a little bit of mystery in finding Hidden Lakes after your hike to the bottom of Hidden Falls.

If you want to see a little bit of the wild side of the Northern Rockies - without getting too wild - take a sojourn along Glacier National Park's Highline Trail.

The Highline Trail follows along the base of the spectacular Garden Wall, part of the Continental Divide, for several miles north of Logan Pass.

I hiked the Highline Trial on a weekday a couple of weeks after Labor Day last year, and saw only one other person the entire day. It was just me and the spectacle of the high Rockies, and a handful of mountain goats for 12 hours.

On a crisp August morning in 1877, close to 750 nontreaty Nez Perce Indians were camped along the North Fork of the Big Hole River.

They'd fled their homes in Idaho in the face of demands from the U.S. Army that all Nez Perce move onto a reservation a fraction the size of their traditional homeland.

The Nez Perce knew they'd crossed into Montana Territory and thought they were safe. Just before daybreak on Aug. 9, 1877, a force of soldiers and civilian volunteers... attacked the village while most of the Nez Perce slept.

The bend in a mountain road, the other side of the river ... some things beg to be explored.

It's ironic that the dust-choked road up the Blackfoot River above Johnsrud Park used to be that "other side of the river." For centuries, native trails, wagon roads, bootleg tracks and railroad beds followed the north bank.

A mile west of Lolo Pass, the old Nez Perce Trail intersects Highway 12 near milepost 171.

The Lewis and Clark expedition passed here in 1806, guided by three Nez Perce. In 1877, some 700 Nez Perce men, women and children led by Chief Looking Glass came through in their flight from U.S. soldiers.

You're on your way.

These days as you travel west down the Lochsa River corridor and beyond, your guide can be the pleasant voice of Mary Hasenoehrl, spilling from your stereo speakers.