The wildly angular Mission Mountains, rising to the east of the Flathead Reservation, were named for a Catholic mission established in the 1850s at St. Ignatius, a small town midway between Polson and Missoula. Like most reservation communities, it’s a poor and fairly depressed place, worth a look for the imposing St. Ignatius Mission church (daily in summer; donations), just east of US-93. Built by Flathead laborers in 1891, the church holds over 50 religious frescoes painted by Fr. Joseph Carignano, the mission cook.

  Along with the church, St. Ignatius holds the Flathead Indian Museum and Trading Post (daily; 406/745-2951), a large gift shop, motel, and drive-through espresso stand right on US-93. There’s also a friendly campground, real tepees you can sleep in, and some dormitory bunks at Hostel of the Rockies (around $14; 406/745-3959). The dorm beds are in a passive-solar earthlodge built out of old tires coated in adobe mud.

  West of St. Ignatius, 18,500 acres of natural rolling prairie have been set aside since 1908 as the National Bison Range, protected home of the 500 or so resident bison (aka buffalo) along with deer, elk, pronghorns, and mountain goats. Allow around two hours to drive a complete circuit of the park; the entrance and visitors center are on the west side of the reserve, off Hwy-200 six miles west of the crossroads town of Ravalli.

  On US-93 in Ravalli, the Bison Inn (406/745-4268) has good food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner; the house specialty is (you guessed it) buffalo burgers, and in summer, huckleberry milk shakes.