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The lakes of northern Idaho--Coeur d'Alene, Pend Oreille, and Priest--are deep, blue, and busy. Scooped out during the Ice Age, the lakes now float yachts and kayaks. On the green […]

Horses, dinosaurs, tepees. I steel my kids, Phoebe and Tobin, for the 500-mile round-trip with these three words. My mission is to take them on a tour of the Rocky […]

Drive U.S. 87 between Great Falls and Lewistown, Montana, and you will see a landscape as unforgettable as any in the West: a cloud-flecked bowl of blue sky, the wide […]

It's a common question when you live in the desert year-round: how do you cope with the heat in summer? Longtime human desert dwellers take a cue from some of […]

HARDIN, MONTANA Every June on the anniversary of Custer's Last Stand, 16 miles from the actual battle site, spectators gather on wooden bleachers in front of a dusty field dotted […]

You drive across Alberta, seeing nothing but cattle and sky, and suddenly Calgary rises from the plains, a cluster of glass skyscrapers bordered by the Bow and Elbow Rivers. A […]

My parents, my brother, my sister's family, and mine--11 of us--are gathered around a table laden with china, crystal, and a turkey the size of a hay bale. We are […]

Pamplona has the running of the bulls. Rio de Janeiro has Carnaval. And Miles City, Montana, has its annual Bucking Horse Sale, May 19, 20, and 21, when nearly 10,000 […]

Across the Rockies, the Day of the Dead offers spirited fun * In Mexico, the traditional observance of El Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) happens from October […]

* October 11-14. Kalispell, Montana, will be rocking when the eighth annual Glacier Jazz Stampede hits town. Every hour, traditional, Dixieland, swing, and big bands will feature toe-tapping songs like […]

* "A good firefighter must be not only mentally and physically competent, but creative and organized," says Wayne Williams. "It comes down to being able to trust another smokejumper with […]

* From the deck of the bar at Montana Snow-bowl, 12 miles west of Missoula, you can eat homemade pizza and watch 30 ski jumpers hurtle themselves as far as […]

For great skiing at bargain prices, try Montana's small resorts There are no fancy resort hotels. No gondolas. No four-star restaurants or busloads of tourists from out-of-state. But what these […]

* Hurry and you may see nearly 1,000 bald eagles as they migrate from Canada to their wintering grounds in Utah and Colorado. Near Helena, Montana, through early December, you […]

* December 3-4. The strains of George Frederick Handel's Messiah, conducted by Eric Funk and performed by the Helena Symphony Orchestra and Chorale, will waft through the Cathedral of St. […]

* Photographing Montana 1894-1928: The Life and Work of Evelyn Cameron (Mountain Press, Missoula, MT, 2000; $60 hardcover, $35 paperback; 406/728-1900) documents the story of a frontier woman who left […]

* Threaded by rivers and bordered by the snow-covered peaks of 10,000-foot mountain ranges, the Pioneer Mountains National Scenic Byway south of Anaconda, Montana, is an education in the state's […]

Paradise Valley is Montana at its best Imagine the opening of a movie about the 19th-century West. The camera sweeps over Livingston, situated on a bend in the Yellowstone River […]

Three lodges are restored and reopened * Built by the Great Northern Railway in the early 1900s, Glacier National Park's chalets offered wilderness lodging that was comfortable and stylish. Of […]

* June 10. From April to June, hundreds of turkey vultures--with red heads and wingspans of up to 6 feet--return to nest here and ride the thermals above the treeless […]

* April 8. For the last five years, folks around Neihart have satisfied that basic urge to smash things by, well, sending mannequins (and other inanimate objects) on skis over […]

A renovated museum anchors a bustling historic district * Drive past the oil refineries, the air permeated by the sugar beet factory's earthy smell, and there's no doubt about it: […]

March 10-11. Skijoring was once just a Scandinavian mode of transportation in which a skier was pulled by a reindeer. The activity has evolved into a team competition with a […]

* February 12. Lon Chancy--complete with fangs and sunken eyes--will haunt the Paris Opera House in this restored version of the 1925 silent film The Phantom of the Opera. The […]

* Thanks to the Forest Service, you can celebrate the millennium in a beautifully restored homestead high above Rock Creek in Montana with a water pump and wood cook-stove. Perhaps […]

* January 22-23. The U.S. High Altitude Sports Center in Butte, Montana, hosts the U.S. World Cup Speed Skating Sprint Championships, with as many as 80 skaters from countries as […]

Hard times made this city a community It's a saturday morning in July 1999, and downtown Missoula is humming. Runners, bicyclists, and dogs with windmilling tails zoom along the trails […]

'WE'VE BEEN USING THE WORD 'HOMESTEAD' as an adjective for a long time,' wrote Joanna Smetanka in her blog on April 30, 2010. 'Whenever we do something really hard-core or [...]

This winter, follow the paved road up into the Gallatin Range of the Rocky Mountains, past the venerable Big Sky Resort's condo villages, and into the stands of Douglas fir. […]

Summer is the sweetest of all seasons on Montana's Flathead Lake. It is, yes, a beautiful lake year-round: Mysterious in winter, when its 22 islands are shrouded in fog and […]

DARRELL ROBES KIPP KEEPS BLACKFOOT LANGUAGE ALIVE. In Browning, Montana, heart of the 1.5 million acres of rolling prairies and jagged Rocky Mountains that make up the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, […]

The ins and outs of Montana's hot springs The story of Montana's hot springs is the story of Montana itself. When the tectonic plates collided and buckled to form the […]

* ROBERTS, IDAHO Eat Cajun You wouldn't figure on finding an authentic Cajun restaurant in Roberts, which boasts a population of around 900, but people are driving 100 miles or […]

* WINTER PARK, COLORADO Ski in the sun Get your last snow fix where sunny skies and lower prices contribute to a laid-back, beachilke ambience. At Winter Park Resort, you […]

* BOULDER, COLORADO Fly like an eagle For a bird's-eye view of Rocky Mountain splendor, splurge on a soar with Mile High Gliding, which offers FAA-certified flights in high-performance sailpianes […]

* SALT LAKE CITY Beam up Experience "The Ultimate Universe" downtown by way of the shiny new Clark Planetarium, opening April 11. The projection system in its domed Hansen Star […]

MIDWAY, UTAH Feel the burn Glide your cross-country skis along the same Nordic tracks made famous by Olympic athletes at Soldier Hollow, a 600-acre winter wonderland in the midst of […]

DENVER Get modern Celebrating the 25th anniversaries of the Modern & Contemporary Art Department and its founding curator, Dianne Vanderlip, Retrospectacle: 25 Years of Collecting Modern & Contemporary Art is […]

DENVER Go to the light Guided by little lights, you can wind through Denver's Hispanic art district during the Luminarias de Santa Fe Arts Walk on December 13. You can […]

PONY, MONTANA Go soak yourself Step into the 102[degrees] water of the enclosed granite tub at Potosi Hot Springs Resort, deep in the Tobacco Root Mountains, and as you gaze […]

DENVER Ho, ho, ho in LoDo Decorated with charming Victorian excess, Larimer Square in downtown Denver celebrates the holidays in style during Winterfest, five weeks of special events and shopping […]

ST. IGNATIUS, MONTANA Dine Amish style Step into the cedar-log banquet hall on the Amish farm near St. Ignatius, shadowed by the Mission Mountains 41 miles north of Missoula. Women […]

SALT LAKE CITY Dish with a pro Join one of the salty city's hottest chefs for a Saturday afternoon cooking class. At Metropolitan, the amiable Jonathan Perno will walk cooks […]

LITTLETON, COLORADO Take a break Lollipop-colored umbrellas mark Oasis on the Platte, the only refreshment stop on the 30-mile South Platte River Greenway. Bicylists, bladers, and walkers pull over here […]

After we hit the biking or hiking trails around Utah's red rock country, we often head to the chic but "come-in-your-sports-shorts" Center Cafe. This foodie mecca in the desert, owned […]

October is McIntosh season in Bitterroot Valley--the largest supplier of apples in the Northwest from the 1890s to the 1910s, when hundreds of McIntosh apple orchards were planted. Tree diseases […]

We recently helped identify nearly 50 species of birds at the "Celebration of Birds" weekend, hosted by Andrea and Tony Malmberg at their Twin Creek Ranch & Lodge. This 20,000-acre […]

The Benedictine fathers of Holy Cross Abbey are now growing grapes and running a winery. The fledgling operation will begin pulling grapes in 2003 or '04, but in the meantime, […]

Catch indies, documentaries, kids' flicks, and more at the 25th Starz Denver International Film Festival, showcasing 150-plus films from around the world. "For 11 days, you can see great movies, […]

Few ghost towns have the unvarnished authenticity that Bannack has. Take the self-guided tour of streets lined with 60 structures in various states of repair-including the jail, hotel, first governor's […]