Montana Suggestions, west montana (Whitefish, Polson: resort, art, places)

[JoyRyd]

I'm doing a road trip from Souther British Columbia to the west side of Montana then up north to southern alberta, I'll be driving, I love back roads, scenery, ranches, hiking, ghost towns, rodeo, small town fairs, etc. I'll be leaving July 30th and should hit Montana within a day or 2. If anyone has suggestions on roads, places to stay like B&B's or ranches, fairs and fun things to do for a single 38 year old woman I'd welcome the advice.

thank you
JM

[NYMTman]

Off the top of my head, here are some pretty drives:

Route 35 between Polson and Bigfork around Flathead Lake. Lake is beautiful and (I think) the Flathead cherries are reaching their peak. I'm partial to those cherries.

Obviously, the Going to the Sun Highway through Glacier Park is gorgeous. If you have a lot of time on your hands, enter through the eastern gateway at St Mary. Going that way'll spit you out through West Glacier. That way, when you go up through AB, you can go through Whitefish and take Route/Highway 93 all the way through Kootenay to Banff (don't know if you were planning on going up this far, though). That drive was the second prettiest I've ever been on, after the Icefields Parkway, if I recall correctly. Been a long time though.

Bigfork and Whitefish are nice towns to see. Nice, well-kept downtowns with pretty scenery abound. Whitefish has Big Mountain (ski resort), which during the summer offers spectacular views of Flathead Valley and the surrounding areas; just take the gondola to the top. Last time I was there, the gondola was closed, though.

I can't think of anything else at the moment; not particularly familiar with that area of MT. Others should know more about ghost towns and rodeos and such.

[jimj]

NYMTMAN,
Just so you know since you are a fan of cherries I was just told by our produce mgr that the crop was severly damaged by the recent storms and that they just got the last delivery that they are going to get this year.. Evidently the rain and heat is making them burst and so will only be sold to producers of jam.