Day trip through the Mission Valley of Montana

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Phil got up early this morning and went to the Ronan Dodge dealer, which is right across the street from the RV Park. The service manager told him there was no way he could look at the truck, read the code, much less fix it. He was too busy, had guys out sick, etc. He did suggest that Phil call the dealer in Whitehead, MT and see if they could get him in. So, we have an appointment up there on Friday while we are in Kalispell (our next stop).

So, we decided to take a drive a little to the north to Polson, which is located on the southern tip of Flathead Lake.

This area of Montana is called ‘Mission Valley’ and is bordered by the Mission Mountains on the east, the Flathead River on the west, Lake Flathead on the north and the town of St Ignatius on the south.

This is a pretty valley, mostly agricultural, along with cattle, horses and the timber industry. This is also the home of the Flathead Indian Reservation. There are several wildlife refuges and the valley is home to nearly all native Montana wildlife. Flathead Lake is the largest natural fresh water lake west of the Mississippi and is the last remnant of glacier Lake Missoula.

The signs on the highway are in the Indian language as well as the English translation. One thing we were all very impressed with was a short tunnel with a natural landscape on top, it was a wildlife crossing over the highway! What a wonderful idea!!

Polson is one of those quiet little towns that explode in the summer when the tourist come to play on the lake. I’m glad we got to experience it before the season actually started. Everywhere you look here are flowers; hanging baskets, planters, window boxes, planters on the sidewalks, just beautiful color everywhere.