Missoula

Understand

Though it's physically part of the Rocky Mountains region, culturally Missoula identifies closely with the Pacific Northwest. Home to the University of Montana and often considered by residents as the most liberal city in Montana, it's an interesting mix of ranchers, cowboys, hippies, yuppies, students, artists, athletes and recreationalists. Graduates from the University of Montana frequently remain in Missoula, creating a large over-qualified work force. A local barista or cook may have, at the very least, a Bachelor's degree.

Local information

• City of Missoula council website

Get in

By plane

The following airlines offer year-round service:

• Alaska Airlines (Portland and Seattle year round, and seasonally from San Diego)
• American Airlines & American Eagle (Dallas Ft Worth)
• Allegiant (Las Vegas and Phoenix/Mesa)
• Delta and Skywest dba Delta Connection (Minneapolis-St Paul and Salt Lake City)
• United & United Express (Denver year round, and seasonally from Chicago O'Hare)

The following airlines operate seasonally during the summers:

• Frontier (Denver)
• Sun Country (Minneapolis-St Paul)

There are taxis, rideshare and hotel shuttles to bring you into town locally. There are also car rentals available from the airport which is the preferred method for greater flexibility in getting around to the surrounding areas. The Mountain Line #11 bus connects the airport with the downtown Lewis & Clark Transit Center.

By car

There are five exits from Interstate 90 (I-90), Airways Blvd (Exit #99); the Grant Creek Blvd exit (Exit #101); Orange St (Exit #104); Van Buren St (Exit #105); , and East Missoula (Exit #307). The Van Buren St exit is the closest exit to access downtown and the University of Montana campus while the Airways Blvd is the closest to the airport.

Missoula is 118 mi west of Butte (Jct I-15 with I-90); 203 mi west of Bozeman; 165 mi east of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho and Spokane, WA another 30 mi west of Coeur d'Alene all along I-90.

By bus

The #11 bus and the #2 bus connect the bus station with the downtown Lewis & Clark Transit Center. Only the #11 (northbound on Broadway) goes up to the airport.

Get around

Visitors to Missoula often remark that the city is hard to get around in by car, a fact Missoulians famously owe to conflicting city engineers at the turn of the century. The confusing roadways make the Mountain Line city bus system a great way to get around, but with a little orienting, the city can be much more easily navigated.

• Higgins Avenue runs from downtown in the northern end of town through the outskirts of the tree-lined streets of the university district until it takes a sharp curve to the west in the south end of town, leading mainly to residential areas.
• Broadway Street runs east to west, mostly along the Clark Fork river, from Van Buren, entrance to the Rattlesnake Recreation Area and the hippest place to live in town, through downtown before bisecting with Highway 93 and continuing on to the airport and I-90.
• Orange Street runs through downtown and another treed residential area before intersecting with Brooks Street.
• Brooks Street begins as Highway 93 from Lolo to the south of Missoula before turning into Brooks Street, a major shopping area populated with strip malls, fast food restaurants and the like, before dead ending into Higgins in a particularly confusing no-right-turn intersection.
• Russell Street runs north-south from Broadway to 39th, through residential, industrial and business districts, but is a main roadway for motorists.
• Reserve Street runs from I-90 to 39th from the north to south, crossing Broadway, 3rd Street, South Avenue and Brooks Street before dead ending. Major box stores, such as Target and Wal-Mart, as well as movie theaters, restaurants and other businesses line the thoroughfare.

Go next

Missoula's immediate surroundings offer a wide array of activities for all seasons, including the outdoor recreation afforded by vast tracts of public lands, the Old West flavor of several nearby ghost towns, several ski slopes, and a range of unique Montana businesses.

• Lolo and Lolo Pass is where you can find more Lewis and Clark history, good Nordic skiing and a series of rustic hot springs on the way to Idaho.
• Garnet Ghost Town, about an hour's drive east on MT-200, is the closest significant ghost town to Missoula. Maintained by the Bureau of Land Management in a state of suspended decay, the small mining camp of Garnet is an open-air museum of gold rush life on the frontier. It is only accessible by car during the summer and early fall, but two cabins in the town are rented through the winter to adventurous skiers or snowmobilers.
• Glacier National Park is three hours' drive north on US-93.