Horseback Riding in Whitefish, Montana

The next day, May 31st, 2011, we decided to stay in town and explore Whitefish, Montana.

Whitefish is a vibrant western town located in the northern Rocky Mountains of Montana next to Glacier National Park, and it has millions of acres of spectacular unspoiled nature in every direction.

We came here to see Glacier's Rocky Mountains, but the first mountain came to impress us most is Whitefish's Big Mountain, a winter ski and summer resort mountain. It has had a very busy winter ski season due to this year's unexpected number of snowfalls. We even saw local resident walk all the way up to ski down today at the last day of May!

I called Explore Whitefish's toll free number 1-877-862-3548 for ideas of what to do in town. A nice lady gave me two numbers for horseback riding, told me of today's Farmers' Market at downtown Whitefish in front of the historic Whitefish train depot.

Bar W Guest Ranch was the one answered my phone so we scheduled our riding at 1 pm. Since we still had plenty of time before the horseback riding, we decided to drive south and visit the Flathead Lake, the so-called largest natural fresh-water lake in the western United States. What impressed us most is the fried duck drumlets we ordered from the Docks, Lakeside, Montana. $18 for six pieces, perhaps over-priced but it is the most delicious dish. Mac and Cheese from the kids' meal is yummy, too.

So we drove back to Whitefish, and were just in time for our scheduled horseback riding. Our two wranglers were Allan and Raven, both from Tennessee. My horse was Toby. I didn't expect our riding with that much uphill and downhill, it gave me such saddle sores in the end. Still, it has been exciting experience as this is my first time of horseback riding ever.

We located the Whitefish's Post Office in the downtown and mailed two postcards to friends back in Ohio, then we visited Whitefish's Farmers' Market near the Train Depot. Veggies, flowers, arts, music, foods, cookies, the same as farmers' market all around the country. So just we just bought a bag of kettle popcorn and left before the raindrops falling on our heads.