Missoula Montana and on to Glacier National Park…

We left Drummond Montana City Park and drove north to the Gray Wolf Peak Casino just outside Missoula Montana. I checked with this small casino about overnight parking and allow space for RVers in a gravel lot near their security building. We enjoyed a great view of the mountains out our front window and felt we certainly couldn’t beat the price of this nice boondocking site. This location had us now just about 100 miles south of Columbia Falls, Montana where we will spend a week exploring Glacier National Park, our summer goal.

After setting up camp we drove back south into Missoula Montana to explore this city. Our first stop was to check out the University of Montana. This moderate sized mountainside university was pleasant to walk around. Like Brigham Young University they have a trail up to a letter representing their school. With limited time we decided we would have tol save this hike for a future date.

Next up was a trip into the downtown area where we checked out the shops along the older part of town. We also had to make a grocery store stop and when we pulled into the Safeway Grocery it was fitting for Montana that an Osprey was hunting fish in the adjacent river. With groceries in hand we thought we would head over to a local brewery to check out the crafted beer scene in Missoula. It turned out to be a challenge as we first went to Big Sky Brewery which was closed for an event. So we headed back into town and landed at the KettleHouse Brewery which as I found out later was the number one rated brewery in the area by the locals.

We tried a few crafted beers and enjoyed their number one seller the Cold Smoke Scotch Ale. As it was dinner time we sought out some advice of the locals and settled on getting a to go pizza at the MacKenzie River Pizza Pub and Grill. A pretty darned good thin crust pizza…

We enjoyed a relaxing evening at our site at the relatively quiet little casino and to repay our hosts we filled up with both diesel for the RV and gas for our Honda. As morning broke we headed toward our northernmost point for our summer travels into Montana, Columbia Falls. A few hours later after we took the scenic drive north on Highway 35 out of Polson Montana. A sign warned of narrow roads and construction but the drive was  a great choice heading north as we traveled alongside the banks of beautiful blue Flathead Lake.  We pulled into Columbia Falls RV Park about noon leaving us a half a warm, sunny day to explore Glacier National Park…