This Montana city’s top-notch meals and world-class wilderness make it a must-visit
America’s Best Towns to Visit
13 movies
This Montana city’s top-notch meals and world-class wilderness make it a must-visit
Tyler Florence’s secret to nice grilled kabobs? It’s all within the reduce
Frank-ly, you are not grilling scorching canines proper with out this water-dunking step
Months after Hurricane Helene, this mountain city is on the rebound
Watch ‘Somebody Feed Phil’ on the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen
See why this city’s Pride celebration is a month earlier—and why you must visit
Sock burnings? Tug of warfare? Check out this coastal city’s quirky traditions
Come to Las Cruces for the pure magnificence, keep for the meals
Petaluma gives nice meals, wine and particular treats for movie followers
This City of Presidents is more than a monument to the previous
This ‘hidden gem’ of a metropolis is the place the blues style was born
New York’s tallest waterfall is even increased than Niagara and you have most likely by no means heard of it
Why ‘it’s onerous to go to work’ on this Oregon city
NCS
—
The American West is stuffed with towns that function gateways into the pure world. Launching factors, if you’ll, that sit on the sting of the wilderness and supply the notorious three Bs — a beer, a burger and a mattress — to these searching for refuge.
But Missoula, Montana, is approach more than a launching pad. Better to name it a basecamp, as one younger faculty pupil working in a espresso store put it, with loads to do and see earlier than you set out in your subsequent outside journey.
Because Missoula is so distant, folks usually assume there’s no variety or tradition, he defined, and so they don’t notice how a lot is happening right here till they arrive and see for themselves.
MORE AMERICA’S BEST TOWNS TO VISIT 2025
Described as “fairly alternative,” “eclectic,” and “quirky” by numerous locals, Missoula is house to about 80,000 residents and a giant pupil inhabitants attending the University of Montana. With world-class wilderness in each path, there are countless alternatives for outside recreation, particularly when it comes to river actions, like fishing and boating, in addition to mountaineering and mountain biking.
Missoula was as soon as an industrial lumber city, its ambiance haunted by black smoke and the excitement of saws. But immediately, issues are totally different. Modern-day Missoula is outdoorsy, creative and musical, with college roots that convey vitality to its downtown.
America’s Best Towns to Visit 2025: Missoula
Missoula sits on the confluence of 4 of the best rivers within the Western United States for fishing and recreation, in accordance to Todd Frank, a native outside clothes shop — the Bitterroot, the Blackfoot, the Clark Fork and Rock Creek.
Fly fishing is ingrained into the native lifestyle, and you may take a guided fly-fishing outing to be taught the ropes if it’s your first time. Other methods to expertise the serenity of the Montana countryside are mountaineering, tenting and mountain biking, that are ample in close by wilderness areas, reminiscent of Lolo National Forest, Bitterroot National Forest, Flathead National Forest, the Bob Marshall Wilderness and lots of others. Todd Frank’s outside gear enterprise, The Trail Head, has handy recreation guides on-line to mountaineering trails and different actions round Missoula, together with their problem and distance from city.
Much of the attraction is that you simply don’t have to go far to benefit from the outside in Missoula. Rattlesnake National Recreation Area and Wilderness is simply 4 miles from downtown, and in summer time, the Clark Fork River, which runs proper via the center of city, comes alive with exercise. The scenic “M” trail that climbs to an overlook of Missoula leaves proper from city.
“Five minutes outside of town you can be on a trail, and you don’t even know there’s a town there,” stated Matt Lautzenheiser, govt director of the Historical Museum at Fort Missoula, a 32-acre park with numerous reveals.
The rivers are undeniably integral to town’s tourism and any customer is sure to work together with them not directly. Frank recommends that first-timers go for a drink out on the deck of Finn Restaurant to watch the fly fishermen in motion within the river under. For some low-key river time, lease a canoe, inflatable kayak, or tube and float a section of the Clark Fork River, a locally-beloved approach to spend a day on the water, shut to house.
If you had arrived in Missoula prior to 1990, the middle of city would have been a large sawmill, tasked with the processing and transporting of logs. Long-time native residents can bear in mind a time when a haze enveloped the city, wooden pulp clouded the river, and the sounds of the sawmill might be heard from miles away.
“The air was bad and smoky, there wasn’t really much going on,” Frank recalled about his arrival to Missoula within the early Nineteen Eighties. “When I moved here, no one went into the river. Generally speaking, all the businesses in Missoula had their back to the river. There really wasn’t any fishing to be had.”
A collection of regulatory modifications and efforts by environmental teams all through the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s pushed out pure useful resource extraction industries. The native economic system was hit onerous because the mills closed down, however a well-liked Hollywood movie helped kick off Missoula’s new period in tourism.
The 1992 movie, “A River Runs Through It,” starring Brad Pitt, launched Americans to Missoula and to fly fishing in Montana, which, trying again, Frank described as a turning level. From there on out, Missoula’s rivers started to take heart stage.
“That movie shined a super bright spotlight on fishing in Montana,” stated Frank. “And it just blew up at that point, the number of people coming to recreate, we’ve been busy ever since then.”
While the success story of revitalizing the rivers tends to take heart stage, Missoula has blossomed in different methods, too.
When Nick Checota moved to Missoula about 20 years in the past, the historic Top Hat Lounge had seen higher days. Nearby, The Wilma theater was not a lot better off — it, too, was rundown and lacked the musical infrastructure (i.e. stage gear) to persistently entice artists.
Where many noticed stagnation, Checota noticed alternative. He went on to purchase and restore the Top Hat as a “passion project,” then later, in 2015, he purchased and renovated The Wilma. Then, in 2017, he created one thing model new: the KettleHouse Amphitheater, a 4,000-person capability, outside venue on the Blackfoot River, constructed on a property that was initially the Bonner Mill, one other former timber processing plant.
“Nick was a game changer in our community,” Frank stated. “He has done a number of things in the community in the music scene that have really changed the face of what we have available to us.”
Today, guests to Missoula can benefit from the city’s glorious music scene by bopping round these venues, plus occasional stadium reveals held on the University of Montana. The KettleHouse has been particularly beloved by guests for its scenic, sun-soaked riverside vibes. Checota stated that 67% of ticket gross sales in summer time come from out-of-state zip codes, an admirable feat given Missoula’s distant location.
The capability to entice nationwide acts is one apparent purpose for the inflow of holiday makers, Checota stated, however he additionally thinks Missoula is changing into a vacation spot for music lovers due to the intentionally and fairly priced tickets. Lawn seats on the KettleHouse, for instance, could be had for much less than $50 for many reveals — generally as little as $29.50.
Prior to a present, you’ll be able to hit the KettleHouse Brewing Company taproom adjoining to the amphitheater. Or try the oldest microbrewery in Montana, Bayern Brewing, began in 1987 and serving traditional Bavarian brews and German pretzels and brats. Missoula has more than a dozen craft breweries to discover.
If you didn’t have world-class ceramics in your Montana bingo-card, you’d be forgiven. But artists in Missoula end up high-quality ceramics that rival the best the United States has to supply.
“People come and want to pinch themselves,” says Lisa Simon, co-owner of Radius Gallery and a former professor of English literature on the University of Montana. “They can’t believe [these ceramics] are here in Missoula, and not New York City.”
Missoula owes its prowess on this historic artwork to the Archie Bray Center, a famend ceramics heart positioned about two hours from city.
“People come from all over the world to visit ‘The Bray,’” stated Simon. “A lot of fine ceramicists moved here to Missoula to be close to The Bray.”
You could make a pilgrimage to The Bray for a two-hour clay class, although there are many methods to expertise the ceramic scene right here on the town. The Clay Studio of Missoula, for instance, holds grownup clay lessons for all talents, and Zootown Arts Community Center has a wide selection of occasions and lessons. Professionally-made ceramics could be discovered at one of many many downtown galleries, like Radius.
There are additionally two artwork museums — the Missoula Art Museum and the Montana Museum of Art and Culture on the University of Montana campus.
Missoula is additionally a place to discover a extensive number of Indigenous artwork, together with a distinctive model of expression often called ledger artwork, which started within the Nineties and was revitalized within the Seventies.
“[Ledger art] is based on a traditional art form that was practiced by Plains Indians, of which there were upwards of 30 different tribes,” Simon stated. “They did a sort of pictorial flattened art that told the stories of battles, what happened that year, marriages, and big events.”
The custom modified when the Native peoples have been compelled onto reservations within the late 18th and early nineteenth centuries. Instead of portray on, say, buffalo hides, the artform was tailored onto discarded ledgers, which have been accessible in abundance from authorities officers, missionaries and merchants. Today, ledger artwork stays an necessary a part of Indigenous storytelling. Ask round for examples of ledger artwork at galleries in downtown Missoula.
To uncover more of the quirky and hipster aspect of Missoula, visit Rockin Rudy’s division retailer or Rudy’s Attic, the place you’ll be able to store for Montana-themed gag presents and nostalgic memorabilia. Or, take the household for a trip on the local carousel, which is one of many few fully hand-carved carousels in the country.
In the middle of city, the place the previous sawmill as soon as stood, is the most recent neighborhood in Missoula. Created in 2015 and often called the Old Sawmill District, it might be thought of a historic district, thanks to the truth that it sits on shut to 50 acres of prime riverside actual property that was as soon as occupied by the mill.
A stroll via it reveals its fashionable methods, although, with a number of brand-new residences and condos, mixed-use business workplace area, and ground-level shops. It is right here that you can see a more fashionable model of Missoula taking root, even perhaps fashionable at instances — for instance, behold the Montana-inspired French delicacies at Boxcar Bistro.
But the realm retains a laid-back really feel regardless of its uptick in model. The neighborhood is house to many native ballfields, that are flooded with households on summer time nights, and sits adjoining to the Clark Fork River and its riverfront trail, good for night strolls or bike rides.
Like many smaller cities, Missoula’s inhabitants noticed a large enhance throughout and after the pandemic. The well-liked present “Yellowstone,” which was filmed within the Missoula space, additionally elevated its visibility, as has the current enhance in journey to nationwide parks. (Missoula has lengthy been a stopping level for these highway tripping between Yellowstone and Glacier).
“It’s becoming more than just, ‘I’ll stay one night there on my way from Yellowstone to Glacier,’” Lautzenheiser stated.
“It’s more than just a launching pad,” he stated. “It’s a place where people can spend a few days and really experience not only that kind of western culture [typical of Montana], but also that kind of quirky, interesting Missoula culture we’ve created.”