Category: Tourism

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Go Hike With Mike Trail Guide.

Hiking in Montana

The Flathead Lake Trail Guide.

See you on the Trail.

If you have ben looing to hike around Flathead Lake you need to get to know Mike. The Go Hike With Mike Trail Guide post just about every trail.  Maybe you might stumble upon one not in the guide, but it is unlikely.

The guide is all about camping & hiking around Flathead Lake.

Go Hike With Mike Trail Guide
Go Hike With Mike Trail Guide

Mike has been hiking, wandering, hunting and spending time in these woods for more then 20 years.  The guide includes trails as far north as Polebridge, and the  Hungry Horse recreation area, and east to the Swan Front and Swan Valley.  To the north the guide contains trail head and campground information in and around Tally Lake.

Hiking Around Flathead Lake

The trail guide is focused on trails, camping and being in the woods.  Mike’s Flathead Lake Trail Guide breaks the area in five easy to use sections.  North of Flathead lake, including The Talley Lake area and due north to Polebridge. East of Flathead Lake, including the Swan Front, Swan Valley, and on into the Hungry Horse recreation area.   The guide contains most every trail Mike has hiked in the last 20 years or plans to hike in the next 20 years.

CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE YOUR COPY.

Don’t need the hiking guide, just some basic trail information, do not fret.  Mike has included some beginner to medium hikes on this website.  Depending on were you as staying there is most likely a trail head near you. Thanks for visiting, hope to see you on the trail.

Follow Mike on Instagram or subscribe to his YouTube Channel

#gohikewithmike

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Flathead Lake Vacation Guide

Montana’s Flathead Lake Vacation Guide announced its 10th anniversary of it’s feature packed guide containing most everything about the greater Flathead Lake area. FLVG began as an idea of bringing all of the businesses and activities surrounding Montana’s Flathead Lake into one easy to use resource guide.  The creation of the Guide included numerous trips around Flathead Lake photographing trail heads, fishing & camping access as well as boat and vacation rental locations.  The Guide includes complete listings of boat rentals and a new logo design in 2020.  In addition to Guide updates, the website popularly has grown.

Flathead Lake Vacation Guide

All Around Flathead Lake

Since its inception in 2013, the Flathead Lake Vacation Guide has been providing on the ground information about hiking, camping, and fishing access around all of the Lake.

Download the leader in providing information about fun things to do when visiting Flathead Lake Montana.

“FLVG has experienced exceptional growth and refinements over the past years,” said Hewston. “Moving forward, our focus will remain on offering the best up to date information available. ”

Above all, FLVG has been successful at evolving and changing to stay up to date and relevant. Providing information about northwest Montana.

Purchase your Vacation Guide today!

For more information on The Guide please visit montanasflatheadlake.com.

Contact info:

www.montanasflatheadlake.com
havefun@montanasflatheadlake.com
#montanasflatheadlake

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The Flathead Indian Reservation

Montana's Flathead Lake

Welcome to the Flathead Indian Reservation.

Let’s take a moment to consider the history that took place to allow you to enjoy all of the recreational and hiking opportunities Flathead Lake has to offer.

The southern half of Montana’s Flathead Lake resides on the Flathead Indian Reservation.  This is Indian Country. The Hellgate Treaty of 1855 set this land aside for the Salish, Kootenai and Pend Oreille Tribes.

Charlo, or Charlot, was the son of Victor, and his successor as chief of the Salish bands. The Treaty of 1855, negotiated by Isaac Stevens, had guaranteed that Victor and his people could stay in the Bitterroot Valley. In 1872, however, President U.S. Grant ordered the Salish, then led by Chief Charlo, to move north to the Flathead Reservation. Two sub-chiefs, Arlee and Joseph Nine Pipes, complied, but Charlo refused, and stayed resolutely, but “illegally,” on his native lands.

In 1876, the government of Montana Territory proposed a tax on Indians’ property. Charlo’s bitter but eloquent response resonates with his deep sadness and disillusionment.

Chief Charlo’s Answer

Since our forefathers first beheld [the white man], more than seven times ten winters have snowed and melted. Most of them like those snows have dissolved away. Their spirits went whither they came; his, they say, go there too. Do they meet and see us here? Can he blush before his Maker, or is he forever dead? Is his prayer his promise—a trust of the wind? Is it a sound without sense? Is it a thing whose life is a foul thing?…

What is he? Who sent him here? We were happy when he first came; since then we often saw him, always heard him and of him. We first thought he came from the light, but he comes like the dusk of the evening now, not like the dawn of the morning. He comes like a day that has passed, and night enters our future with him.…

Had Heaven’s Chief burnt him with some mark to refuse him, we might have refused him. No, we did not refuse him in his weakness; in his poverty we fed, we cherished him—yes, befriended him, and showed the fords and defiles of our lands. Yet we did think his face was concealed with hair, and that he often smiled like a rabbit in his own beard. A long-tailed, skulking thing, fond of flat lands, and soft grass and woods.

To confirm, his purpose; to make the trees and stones and his own people hear him, he whispers soldiers, lock houses and iron chains.…He, the cause of our ruin, is his own snake, which he says stole on his mother in her own country to lie to her. He says his story is that man was rejected and cast off. Why did we not reject him forever? He says one of his virgins had a son nailed to death on two cross sticks to save him. Were all of them dead then when that young man died, we would be all safe now and our country our own. . . .

…His meanness ropes his charity, his avarice wives his envy, his race breeds to extort. Did he speak at all like a friend? . . .

He is cold, and stealth and envy are with him, and fit him as do his hands and feet. We owe him nothing; he owes us more than he will pay, yet he says there is a God.…

His laws never gave us a blade nor a tree, nor a duck, nor a grouse, nor a trout. No; like the wolverine that steals your cache, how often does he come? You know he comes as long as he lives, and takes more and more, and dirties what he leaves.”

In 1891, after 20 more years of impoverishment and near-starvation, Charlo agreed to move his band of 157 people to the Flathead Reservation. They walked the seventy-five miles from their ancestral homeland in the Bitterroot Valley to the Jocko Valley at the southern end of the reservation.

The Arlee Powwow Celebration.

To have the current information please visit their website: http://arleepowwow.com/

PO Box 163
Arlee, MT 59821

+1 406-529-5464
arleepowwow@cskt.org
http://arleepowwow.com/

 

 

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The Flathead Indian Reservation

Flathead Lake Montana

Welcome to the Flathead Indian Reservation.

Let’s take a moment to consider the history that took place to allow you to enjoy all of the recreational and hiking opportunities Flathead Lake has to offer.

The southern half of Montana’s Flathead Lake resides on the Flathead Indian Reservation.  This is Indian Country. The Hellgate Treaty of 1855 set this land aside for the Salish, Kootenai and Pend Oreille Tribes.

Charlo, or Charlot, was the son of Victor, and his successor as chief of the Salish bands. The Treaty of 1855, negotiated by Isaac Stevens, had guaranteed that Victor and his people could stay in the Bitterroot Valley. In 1872, however, President U.S. Grant ordered the Salish, then led by Chief Charlo, to move north to the Flathead Reservation. Two sub-chiefs, Arlee and Joseph Nine Pipes, complied, but Charlo refused, and stayed resolutely, but “illegally,” on his native lands.

In 1876, the government of Montana Territory proposed a tax on Indians’ property. Charlo’s bitter but eloquent response resonates with his deep sadness and disillusionment.

Chief Charlo’s Answer

Since our forefathers first beheld [the white man], more than seven times ten winters have snowed and melted. Most of them like those snows have dissolved away. Their spirits went whither they came; his, they say, go there too. Do they meet and see us here? Can he blush before his Maker, or is he forever dead? Is his prayer his promise—a trust of the wind? Is it a sound without sense? Is it a thing whose life is a foul thing?…

What is he? Who sent him here? We were happy when he first came; since then we often saw him, always heard him and of him. We first thought he came from the light, but he comes like the dusk of the evening now, not like the dawn of the morning. He comes like a day that has passed, and night enters our future with him.…

Had Heaven’s Chief burnt him with some mark to refuse him, we might have refused him. No, we did not refuse him in his weakness; in his poverty we fed, we cherished him—yes, befriended him, and showed the fords and defiles of our lands. Yet we did think his face was concealed with hair, and that he often smiled like a rabbit in his own beard. A long-tailed, skulking thing, fond of flat lands, and soft grass and woods.

To confirm, his purpose; to make the trees and stones and his own people hear him, he whispers soldiers, lock houses and iron chains.…He, the cause of our ruin, is his own snake, which he says stole on his mother in her own country to lie to her. He says his story is that man was rejected and cast off. Why did we not reject him forever? He says one of his virgins had a son nailed to death on two cross sticks to save him. Were all of them dead then when that young man died, we would be all safe now and our country our own. . . .

…His meanness ropes his charity, his avarice wives his envy, his race breeds to extort. Did he speak at all like a friend? . . .

He is cold, and stealth and envy are with him, and fit him as do his hands and feet. We owe him nothing; he owes us more than he will pay, yet he says there is a God.…

His laws never gave us a blade nor a tree, nor a duck, nor a grouse, nor a trout. No; like the wolverine that steals your cache, how often does he come? You know he comes as long as he lives, and takes more and more, and dirties what he leaves.”

In 1891, after 20 more years of impoverishment and near-starvation, Charlo agreed to move his band of 157 people to the Flathead Reservation. They walked the seventy-five miles from their ancestral homeland in the Bitterroot Valley to the Jocko Valley at the southern end of the reservation.

 

 

 

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Pablo Wildlife Refuge

Reflections in the water

Mirror on Pablo ReservoirPablo Wildlife Refuge is located on tribal trust lands of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. It is superimposed on the irrigation reservoir managed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs Flathead Irrigation Project.

Pablo Wildlife Refuge is 2,500 acres of water, marsh, and upland grassland. The refuge provides nesting and resting areas for migratory birds and other wildlife.

Shaped by glacial activity approximately 12,000 years ago, the terrain surrounding Pablo NWR is rolling and interspersed with many pothole wetlands.

Visitor Opportunities 

Fishing is permitted on Pablo NWR in accordance with applicable State, Federal, and Tribal regulations. Yellow perch and largemouth bass are caught at Pablo NWR. Ice fishing is permitted after the waterfowl hunting season has ended and the refuge reopens.

Pablo Wildlife RefugePhotography and wildlife observation are encouraged. Waterfowl numbers vary throughout the year. There may be as many as 80,000 in October and November, and half that number in late March and through early May. A few ducks and geese may spend the winter. Nesting begins in late March and lasts through July. The most numerous nesting species are Canada geese, mallards, and redheads. Pintail, American widgeon, shoveler, blue and green-winged teal, ruddy duck, gadwall, common merganser, and coot are also present. Other species of water, marsh, and upland birds are abundant from May to October. Common loons are occasionally seen and this is a good area to see Bald Eagles.

Common mammals on these refuges are the field mouse or meadow vole, muskrat, and striped skunk. Mink, badgers, and porcupines have also been observed.

Management Programs 

Although water levels are controlled primarily for irrigation and flood control, the Fish and Wildlife Service works closely with the Flathead Irrigation Project to insure that water levels are properly maintained to accommodate nesting waterfowl. A portion of the refuge is closed each spring to minimize disturbance in nesting areas, and the refuge is closed entirely during the hunting season. There is an active Bald Eagle nest on the Refuge which regularly fledge one to two young per year. In 1996, a release of 19 trumpeter swans was conducted by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, Montana Department of Fish Wildlife and Parks and the USFWS with the hope of re-establishing a breeding flock in the valley.

Efforts to improve wildlife habitat over the years have included planting food and cover crops for upland game birds, the construction of nesting islands for waterfowl, and prescribed burning to enhance brooding areas and provide browse for Canada geese. Biological, chemical and mechanical methods are used to control some species of non-native plants which have begun encroaching on the refuge. Aerial surveys are conducted periodically to monitor waterfowl numbers and nesting success.

The refuge is closed to hunting. Adjoining State-owned lands are managed by the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks for wildlife cover, food production, and public hunting. These lands are open to hunting on a first-come-first served basis for waterfowl and pheasant shooting. The closure of Pablo NWR enhances the quality of hunting in the Flathead Valley.

Directions 

Pablo National Wildlife Refuge is located approximately 75 miles north of Missoula and 3 miles south of Polson. Turn west on Reservoir Road 3 miles south of Polson. Traveling west for 1-1/2 miles will bring you to the kiosk for Pablo NWR. The dike road is open for travel during daylight hours through the summer. There are several county roads bordering the Refuge.

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Polson Montana on Flathead Lake

Car Show in Polson Montana

Polson Montana on Flathead Lake. Polson is on the southern half of Flathead Lake on the Flathead Indian Reservation. Reservation.  Permits are available locally and online.

Polson MT

There are many activities happening in Polson MT any given year.  The season opens with a Memorial Day parade and laying of the flowers at the local cemetery. Popular events include the Miracle of America Live History Days – Always the 3rd weekend in July

The Main Street Cherry Festival – last weekend of July,  and the Sandpiper Art Gallery on the Courthouse Lawn in August  in conjunction with the Mission Valley Cruisers Car Show.

Of course there’s always Flathead Lake. If you’re looking for a boat, check out Boat Rentals and Rides, they even deliver to your vacation rental or home. Fishing areas near Polson Montana include Ducharme Fishing Access on highway 35. There is also Walsted Fishing Access on highway 93

Lazy Days begin and end with sunshine. When your in Polson MT there are three lakeside parks.  They are Riverside, Sacajawea Park/City Dock, and Boettcher Park down by the ol’ nine golf course.

The Polson Montana Parks Department endeavors to promote active and vibrant living by providing a great variety of recreational opportunities to choose from. With over 30 acres of parkland, the Parks & Recreation staff maintains 12 park areas, including a skate park, dog park, sports fields, picnicking facilities and playgrounds.

Go swimming, fishing or boating at our waterfront parks. The City of Polson currently has over 10 miles of walking/biking paths within the city limits connected to an additional 20 miles outside the city boundaries. Come allow us to help you make great memories while you play, relax, and recreate in our great little city on the lake.

Additionally, Polson is a community that cares for its urban forest environment and is proud to be a certified Tree City USA for 31 years through the Arbor Day Foundation.

Hours of Operation: All City Parks are open from 7 AM till dusk.

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The Seli’š Ksanka Qlispe’ Dam, Formally KERR Dam

Kerr Dam south of Polson

Went hiking around the Seli’š Ksanka Qlispe’ dam the other day. The gates are open wide at the south end of Flathead Lake. Really, if you haven’t seen it, it is worth the time spent. You wont even need bear spray. The staircase is steep on the way back up. Mike’s advise:  take it one step at a time.

See you on the trail.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gh5HUrgyn9E[/embedyt]

The Seli’š Ksanka Qlispe’ Dam, Formally KERR Dam

The Dam is located on the Flathead Indian Reservation in northwest Montana. It is a concrete gravity-arch dam, built in 1938. The Dam is owned and managed by The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes in conjunction with others. The purchase was complete in 2015. During the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes’ celebration of their acquisition of the dam, the Tribal Council announced renaming the complex to reflect the three confederated tribes.

The Kerr Dam, officially known since 2015 as the Seli’š Ksanka Qlispe’ Dam

The Go Hike With Mike Trail Guide

Purchase the Go Hike With Mike Trail Guide. Read the Table of Contents

Thanks for stopping by.

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The Seli’š Ksanka Qlispe’ Dam, Formally KERR Dam.

Flathead River Dam

Went hiking around the Seli’š Ksanka Qlispe’ dam the other day. The gates are open wide at the south end of Flathead Lake. Really, if you haven’t seen it, it is worth the time spent. You wont even need bear spray. The staircase is steep on the way back up. Mike’s advise:  take it one step at a time.

See you on the trail.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gh5HUrgyn9E[/embedyt]

The Seli’š Ksanka Qlispe’ Dam, Formally KERR Dam

The Dam is located on the Flathead Indian Reservation in northwest Montana. It is a concrete gravity-arch dam, built in 1938. The Dam is owned and managed by The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes in conjunction with others. The purchase was complete in 2015. During the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes’ celebration of their acquisition of the dam, the Tribal Council announced renaming the complex to reflect the three confederated tribes.

The Kerr Dam, officially known since 2015 as the Seli’š Ksanka Qlispe’ Dam

The Go Hike With Mike Trail Guide

Purchase the Go Hike With Mike Trail Guide. Read the Table of Contents

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Montana’s Flathead Lake

Montana’s Flathead Lake is the largest natural freshwater lake in the western United States. Lying in the Flathead Valley of Northwest Montana, the Lake is more then 300 feet deep and extends north and south some 28 miles and is seven to 15 miles wide.

As you drive and drive on the roads that hug Flathead Lake’s shoreline, (US Highway 93 on the west and Montana Route 35 on the east) it’s hard to believe manmade dams that are so common in the Pacific Northwest didn’t create it. Rather, the lake is a fortuitous product of the activity of ice-age glaciers, and is fed by the Swan and Flathead Rivers.

Montanas Flathead Lake

Montana’s Flathead Lake

All manner of water sports are enjoyed upon its 200 square miles of surface. Several state parks and lakeshore communities have boat launches and marinas on the Lake.

Locals know summer has arrived when a steady stream of traffic starts to build on the secondary roads. So in peak season expect to share your enjoyment of the Flathead Valley with many others, although the mountains still offer room to get-away if you are willing to exert yourself.

You can avail yourself of a boat tour or rent one of the many types of watercraft including canoes, kayaks, windsurfers, hydro bikes, sailing and fishing boats. Serious anglers can arm themselves with heavy-duty equipment and probe the 300-foot deep Flathead Lake for trophy Mackinaw. Lake trout, salmon, perch, pike, bass, and whitefish are found in the Flathead area’s many lakes.

There are many hiking trails around the area as well.

If you are looking for the area’s premiere trail guide take a look at Go Hike With Mike trail guide.

This GHWM website contains information about camping & hiking around Flathead Lake.   Mike has been hiking, wandering, hunting and spending time in these woods for more then 20 years and this guide contains most every trail head around Flathead Lake.

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CSKT Tribal Recreation Permits

Recreation Permits: Camping and Hiking in the Mission Mountain Tribal Wilderness:

Recreation PermitsThe Mission Mountains Tribal Wilderness is located on the western slopes of the Mission Range. The area covers approximately 91,778 acres. It is roughly 34 miles long and five miles wide. Elevations range from four thousand to nearly ten thousand feet.

All recreational activities on Tribal owned lands require a non-member person over the age of 11 to purchase a Tribal Conservation Permit. All non-members must have on their person; whenever engaged in recreation activities on Tribally owned lands of the Reservation, a valid Flathead Reservation Use Permit, and any additional bird, fishing, or camping stamps as required. Certain Tribal campgrounds and recreation areas may have special regulations, which are posted, on site.

NOTE: Recreation Permits must be purchased in person initially from a retail outlet/Reservation Permit vendor to register. After that first registration you can purchase online. Reservation Permits are available on the internet at http://app.mt.gov/Als/Index

Pablo, MT at Zimmer Tackle
Plains, MT at Plains Service Center
Polson, MT at – CSKT, DFWRC, 406 6th Avenue East and Wal-Mart
Ronan, MT at Westland Seed
St. Ignatius, MT at Allard’s Stage Stop

Learn More about CSKT Permits

The Go Hike with Mike trail guide contains most every trail head in the Flathead and Kootenai Forest as well as the Mission Mountain Tribal Wilderness.  Click here to purchase your copy.