I was looking for somewhere to stop between Boise and Glacier National Park that was a bit on the closer to Glacier side. When looking at the route, Missoula popped up and I thought, why not? Cute Montana town, seems worth a week's stay.
Well, I was right, in a manner of speaking. That is, I can't imagine staying here more than a week. There's not much going on.
Let me clarify before Missoula residents take offense. There's not much going on from a tourist perspective. To live, it's probably quite lovely. The population is roughly 71,000, which is big enough to have a good collection of bars and restaurants and breweries and coffee houses. Also gyms and music venues and a surprising number of independent bookstores (I couldn't help stopping by one), and a really nice running path along the river. And, being in Montana, it's obviously great for nature lovers - lots of rafting and hiking possibilities.
But as someone just swinging through and wondering, what's the must-do/must-see in Missoula, honestly, there's nothing. I didn't bother to go see the carousel, which is the one thing every tourism site advertises.
I did visit the Historical Museum at Fort Missoula because I felt like I should see some local attraction. It turned out to be more interesting than I expected. Most of the buildings were not from the fort, but were brought in from other parts of Montana. There were also some of the old WWII internment buildings (Italians, Japanese, and Germans were held here). And there was a really cool display on the 25th infantry bicycle corps - Buffalo (black) soldiers who were tasked with deciding if bikes were a viable method of army transport. They rode 1,900 miles on rickety 1890s bikes from Fort Missoula to St. Louis!
The fort had this library bookmobile too, which went around to logging camps offering book loans for the workers. Obviously I love this.
And the inside display on early frontier life in Missoula as the town began to grow had this insane foot x-ray machine that shoe sellers would use to get the perfect measure of a customer's foot. Yes, an actual x-ray machine that they used over and over and over with no protection. Yikes.
But uh, yeah, that's about it for Missoula. Like I said, I'm sure it's quite lovely to live here with your family and good group of friends. But if you're wondering if you should come here on vacation, skip it.