I ran the Missoula Half Marathon and throughout my weekend in Missoula, I came to this park several…read moretimes. I love that there is a play area and carousel for the kiddos, surfing in the river, and a bandstand. Lots of grass to have a picnic or a nap. On one of my visits, I did some people watching and this park seems like a local lunch spot, and a place to meet with friends/family.

4.20.25: We made the 3ish hour drive from Idaho to attend Missoula's 6th Annual 420 Block Party put…read moreon by Montana State Hemp & Cannabis Festival. It was a FREE all day, all ages, event with food trucks galore offering a variety of dishes and cuisines, a ton of vendor booths selling arts, crafts, homemade goods, unique gifts, and gourmet candies/snacks, etc., and best of all LIVE MUSIC performed by 3 different bands and a live DJ set. The vibe was awesome and it was good to see so many smiling faces gathering in one place. Also, it was nice not to see a majority of overly intoxicated people stumbling around but instead seeing positive people bringing nothing but good vibes, great dancing, and in high spirits celebrating 420. Weather wasn't too kind that day but you can't really be mad at mother nature lol. I would definitely come back to Caras Park to attend this annual event. Big thank you to all who helped make this block party happen!

I LOVE the M trails in Montana! I've never seen anything like it in other states but they're so…read morecute and always great little hikes. I live in Bozeman so I was very excited to compare M trails. The parking here was a little stressful as there are only 3 visitor spots and the rest you need a campus tag. It's nice for the students that it's so close by (that's not the case in Bozeman) but hard if you're not a student. There is only one way up to the M while there are several ways up to the Bozeman one. I loved the Strava map that showed all the crazy looking switch backs but in reality it was an easy hike with amazing views. The wildflowers were so vibrant and I loved that you can touch and sit on the M. The bathrooms are also fantastic! The hike is 1.8 miles with a little more than 500ft elevation so it's very fun and doable for most people.

Gorgeous. Can walk up about a mile to the M or keep going another mile to the top and over. Hard to…read morebeat views. Good for family and pets.

endless trails for puppy tails…read more.. Love Blue Mountain...I take my dogs there on a regular basis to run, hike, and retrieve their favorite ball. We love going here because there is a new, undiscovered (by us) trail around every bend. You can go on a short, quick hike or make it an all-day affair. Awesome place just minutes from downtown Missoula.

Very nice and serene park in Missoula. It is very touching and well maintained memorial park just…read moreoutside of downtown Missoula. The roses there are gorgeous. It is a beautiful and calming place to relax, take in the nature and reflect. A lovely place to visit.

Very nice park that is often not visited for those who live in the Missoula area. The war memorials…read moreand the law enforcement memorial are somber locations, reminding all of us the sacrifices made by others and that freedom is never free. Great park.

Great group of people and a cool little fly shop. Our two guides put us on fish all day long even…read morewith low flows! Would definitely use them again.

Casual. Accommodating. (I use the shop for fly tying…read morematerials. If you run into George K., he's a wealth of knowledge and fun to talk to.)

A small and cozy little gym…read more I visited my boyfriend's family and one day we decided to check out their climbing gym. Their rating system is V's, but they use different colored dots to differentiate the levels. Some pretty ridiculous stretchy routes. I was trying to warm up on a V0 and V1, and they totally felt more like a V3 to me because I had to literally reach far for the next holds. I think the setter was just way taller than me, but I love the flow of some of the routes. They also have a slack line area. Fun gym. I'd go again if I was in Missoula.

I was here 5 years ago, visiting family, when it was a small bouldering gym. This place has really…read moreupped its game and i haft to show some love. Im from Sacramento with access to big gyms and bigger outdoor opportunities and i haft to say that this place checks all the boxes. First off, staff is friendly, welcoming and the amenities are great. Lead, top rope, boulder, weight area is a solid A grade. Great route setting. Grades feel on point. Enough of my praise. Give them a visit!

At 5,806 feet above sea level, the summit of University Mountain looms almost half a vertical mile…read moreabove the University of Montana campus, with plunging views into nearby Hellgate and Pattee Canyons. Despite such prominence, it is far less visited than Mount Sentinel (elevation 5,158 ft.), marked halfway up its steep slope by the letter "M," which acts like a magnet for students and trail runners alike who switchback up and down on a regular basis. Even joggers and hikers who use other trails in Pattee Canyon rarely make a stop here, preferring instead to drop down to the Clark Fork and the Kim Williams Trail (via Crazy Canyon Road and the Hellgate Canyon Trail). That's too bad. Because University Mountain is a key stopping point on what I consider to be the best short hike that you can do from the university district: a four summit loop that visits, in sequence, the summits of South Sentinel, University, Radio Tower Peak (elevation 5,543 ft.) and North Sentinel before dropping down back into town. The loop begins and ends at the Evans Ave trailhead. It's around 7-8 miles long with 3,000-3,500 feet of elevation gain/loss, depending on which trail connections you choose. Parts are fairly steep (more than 1,000 feet gain over less than 1 mile of distance), but the views are incredibly rewarding. From the exposed ridgelines, you can gaze in various directions at other prominent peaks outside of Missoula - Lolo, St. Mary's, Stuart, Cha-paa-qn, Sheep, etc. It's a convenient way to orient yourself in three-dimensional space, gazing across miles of open sky in all four compass directions. When the snow falls, as it did earlier this week (October 3), then this hike is particularly lovely, although you may need snowshoes if the accumulation is heavy. The feeling of isolation is very strong, despite the proximity of Missoula down below. But 2500 ft. is a *lot* of empty space, and one of the pleasures of this loop is the chance to gaze down into Hellgate Canyon below your feet, or back South towards the Bitterrroot Range, or West towards the airport where tiny-looking planes are landing, or North into the Rattlesnake, or East at the Sapphire Range. The smells of fresh pine, the feel of rushing wind, the crunch of frozen snow, the sound of your beating heart, it all flows and fixates in your imagination. Three or four hours later, as you walk the residential streets on your way home, you gaze up at the steep slopes of Sentinel and remember what it was like to be perched atop its twin peaks, to disappear into the tree-filled saddle between them, to struggle step-by-step up the exposed ridges, and to reach the cluster of radio towers at the halfway point of the hike. This is not a once-in-a-lifetime experience. It's close enough to become a part of your seasonal routine. Each season the loop feels and looks different, and it's doable 12 months out of the year. As much as I love the university down below, the best classroom is higher up, at the summit of University Mountain. You'll learn more there than you can in any seminar, about nature, about time, about space, about the untapped reservoirs of strength in your body, and about where you fit, in a metaphysical sense, in it all. Standing alone on the summit, where the terrestrial colors of land melt into the blue infinity of sky, you perch on unsteady feet, pause to let your pulse subside, and discover in a lightning flash of unexpected insight just what a great thing it is, to be able to breathe. Then, when your eyes have adjusted to the immensities of distance, you blink, swallow, and smile. Time to move on. The next summit awaits.

I take Western lessons with Amandine. She is a wonderfully patient teacher, and is always so…read moreflexible and reliable. I've had lessons with her both on the horse I lease, and on Amandine's horse. Both great. She gave me really useful tips on the day, and sent me off with things to practice. We've been working on rollbacks and collection. Amandine also exercises many other people's horses at the ranch that I board at, both on the trail and in the arena. She exercises the horses of the ranch managers and another woman at the ranch, who competes with her horse. Everyone trusts her implicitly. Not many people are given this much trust with peoples beloved horses. She has also been really generous with me by answering my endless questions about buying a horse. She gives great advise, and has offered to help me when I go to look at horses. Amandine is really well connected in the equine world. On top of all this, she really is a sweetheart.

Amandine was absolutely fabulous!!! You'll never find anyone as brilliant and at one with her…read morebeautiful horses, and she just made the trip excellent. Not to mention, it was on the most gorgeous mountain trail I've ever seen and literally couldn't keep from marveling at! I grew up on a ranch in Texas and we had horses but this just blew me away! It was at first a slight challenge to find, as it's way up in the forest on a mountain trail but WOW, was it worth the quest! And Amandine is very intelligent and tech savvy so she just pinged us right up to her on the trailhead via my iPhone. (Our Uber driver actually didn't have much trouble finding her.) If you want the ultimate Montana horseback riding adventure, you HAVE to do this one with Amandine! We went out on a sunny September day at 6:15 and rode until 7:45 which was just perfect. I rode Norman -- the sweetest, most mellow and responsive horse you could every hope to ride. But all the horses were just fabulous. I'm already back in SoCal (yuck, in comparison!) and can't wait until my next vacay when I'm heading right back out to AR Riding and Training in Frenchtown, MT for another breathtaking ride! Thanks again you AR and Amandine!!! Y'all are wonderful.