The Great Wide Open

Lolo National Forest, Montana In the stretch of mountains spanning northwest Montana up to the Idaho border, trout swim legendary rivers like the Blackfoot and the Clark Fork; wolverines, grizzly bears, and moose amble through the evergreen forests; and locals complain it’s too crowded if there’s one other car at the trailhead. In short, it’s paradise— especially in early summer, when wildflowers bloom and before August’s wildfire season rolls around.

- Elisabeth Kwak-Hefferan

The insider 

If you live in northwest Montana and enjoy the outdoors, you either know Alden Wright or wish you did. The lifelong Missoulian holds (or has held) leadership positions in the Rocky Mountaineers hiking club, the Missoula Nordic Ski Club, and the Thursday Night Ride mountain biking group, amassing decades’ worth of knowledge about local trails. For most of the past 30 years, Wright has celebrated his birthday by leading an ascent up 10,157- foot Trapper Peak—this last April with 75 candles on his cake.

Dayhike 

The proposed Great Burn wilderness area, a 275,000-acre zone straddling the Montana-Idaho border, draws its name from the catastrophic 1910 wildfires that torched 3 million acres in less than three days. Lucky side effect: The burn kept out logging and development for a century, preserving this now-recovered expanse of subalpine terrain, lush valleys, craggy cliffs, and glittering lakes. Wright’s favorite daysize sampler is the 7.2-mile out-and-back up to Heart and Pearl Lakes, a one-two punch of 6,000-foot tarns tucked in rocky cirques.

Multisport trip