What's a good place on Thursday night?
What's a good place for breakfast and lunch on Friday?
Where to park? I have read it's best to walk, but from where?
As mentioned before any brewery is solid, Press Box is a local Griz sport bar close to the University. The Double Tree on the river across from UM has a nice restaurant overlooking the Clark Fork river with diverse menu from a raw oysters, steak, and firebrick Pizza (My personal favorite happy hour and appetizer spot), The Depot is great, a drive to Lolo Steak House in a large log cabin and a distillery behind with side by side driver to take you to the distillery while you wait for your table (smoked salmon and Brie is my favorite starter and the distillery always has a great specialty drink), Montana Club has two locations and always solid.
For breakfast Paul’s pancakes or get up early skip a walk and give your eyes a work out. Drive north on HWY 93 the first 5 miles is to the top of Evaro hill and then you go past the Lone Wolf casino after entering the Flathead Indian Reservation the massive tunnel north of the casino is a passage area for Grizzly migration or passage above the HWY the next area is a little town of Arlee as the valley opens up and then as you are heading north the HWY narrows to a small river run through a tight ravine to the base of Ravalli hill as you go up the hill the national Bison range is to the west, take a break at the top of Ravalli hill at the parking area. Now you see the Mission Mountain Range (google it) you are at the south end of the Mission valley this isn’t the time of year to drive the Bison range so soak up the views and then head north the next little town you drive through is St Ignatius and as the HWY turns as you pass St Ignatius you get a full view of the beautiful upland bird range and then there is another grade up a few miles north that leads to Nine Pipes it will be a marshy area and a shallow lake area where migratory ducks and geese are year round and you may be lucky and see wild swans in one of the pot hole ponds north of Nine Pipes is Ronan and go eat at the Amish Cafe that is owned and run by local Amish do not get too many extra home made cinnamon rolls or pies because there is a secret spot to get the best doughnut ever after you have breakfast. Go north again to Pablo as you go through the Bull Pine area in Pablo the terrain turns to beautiful farmland and there is an overlook before going down the hill into Polson, pull in enjoy the view of Flathead lake if the winter lake effect isn’t in full force. Go into Polson and before getting to the bridge park on Main Street and go to Polson Bakery and get some of the best doughnuts (they only really make two types: glazed and their unique specialty known by all the locals I will let you enjoy this without a preview) take a walk around the main street area if a walk is what you want or down to the lake front area and dock area. Ronan is about 45 miles away from Missoula and it is worth a morning to experience the Missions and the Flathead valley. Doughnut at Polson Bakery is the reward.