Missoula, MT

I'm in town this week (July 8-14). Since I'm here for a photo class, we have some preplanned locations. But we also have some solo shoot time. Besides Brennans Wake, Rattlesnake park, and the general downtown area, where might I go? Are there any ghost town type places nearby? I do have an all-wheel drive car.
If anyone has ideas, thanks!

Head north towards Whitefish around Flathead Lake, as well as the Swan River Valley, for amazing scenes. Pretty more all four points of the compass will lead you to wonderful places.

Glacier National Park (Montana - to distinguish it from the identically-named park in British Columbia ) is not too far away. That's worth a visit as well. There is a national park right across the Canadian border from Glacier, too: Waterton Lakes National Park.

Actually it is called Glacier-Waterton International Peace Park, but both are well worth the effort to visit.

R.

Wonders of the Wild Wild West

Has anyone ever posted a portrait of Bud and his amazing rock collection? It is just up the street in Condon, at the Photographers Formulary....IMHO one of the seven wonders of Montana

A short drive north will get you to Deer Lodge which has a great Prison you can photograph. It is no longer in use but you can tour it with a camera with no problems.
If you head South a bit there are some excellent areas with a great Wildlife refuge that has a lot of old snags, Osprey nests and great meadows. Just a bit more gets you to Hamilton which has one of the best Steakhouses around. I think it is Nyes, but you better check to make sure you don't miss it. More than worth the drive. All up and down the valley to the South is a gold mine for fine photos. Especially the side roads.

One more thing... I don't know if the Flathead Cherries are in season yet but if they are the fruit stands alongside the road North and South will have them. Buy some. They are excellent.

No Flathead Cherries yet, but they will be comming on soon, anywhere you go in the corridor from the Idaho Border to the Canadian Border, you will find something to take pictures of, be sure and get off on some of the side roads and look for the old barns, they are everywhere!

R.

Our solo shoot time isn't very long. Someone in town mentioned Garnet and said it's about an hour and a half from here. Unfortunately, they also said it would be better in the morning and we don't have time to get there and back in time for class (and still get light to shoot by). And the weather is questionable. Anyone been there?

Thanks for all the other ideas. I'll have to check maps to see if there's time to hit them. We have times that we have to drop off our film by so we can have it back by the next class. That's part of what's limiting my travel time.