Wander the West

The Resort at Paws Up - Montana

	Tent City at Paws Up Resort

2006

The Resort at Paws Up is a luxury resort on a 37,000 acre ranch in the Blackfoot Valley of Montana. The resort is an easy 40 minute drive from Missoula, Montana. Resort staff are happy to pick up travelers from the Missoula airport and provide transportation throughout your stay at the ranch. This makes the ranch a great destination for city folk looking for a relaxing vaction - just book your plane tickets and let the resort handle your post-flight transportation for you.

The resort has many lodging options, including luxury houses and well-appointed cowboy style tents to get you closer to nature. We opted for the tents. We were looking for a unique lodging opportunity and we had heard great things about Tent City at the resort. From the moment of our arrival at the ranch headquarters, we were impressed with how courteous and friendly the staff was. The staff gave us a folder of information on resort ammenities, made sure we had all of our questions answered, and escorted us several miles to Tent City (we drove to the ranch).

Tent City is constructed in a grove of Ponderosas at the edge of a field adjacent to the Blackfoot River. The tents were well-appointed with comfortable beds and nice furnishings. The tents have wood floors. Despite being in an unseasonable heat wave (upper 90's), nights were cool and temperatures were in the 50's. Two down comforters ensured we stayed warm at night. The camp has a "butler" that ensures all of your needs are taken care of during your stay. Tent City has an open air dining facility that offers a hot breakfast and dinner. Lunch is either included with your daily activities, or you can go to the restaurant at the ranch headquarters. Each tent has a separate bathroom located at a building central to all the tents. The bathrooms feature granite countertops, skylights, and tile showers.

Tent City is best described as quiet, peaceful, and beautiful. It is a chance to get back to nature while still having most of the comforts of home. Tent City also had a unique social element in that meals had the guests of Tent City gathering at roughly the same time, an interesting opportunity to meet people from different parts of the country. I witnessed a couple of interesting social situations while at the camp. One guest that had stayed at the tents, then by previous arrangement moved to a cabin on the property, found himself visiting Tent City again several times while at the cabins. It seemed he really missed the unique environment at Tent City, including the fantastic staff and the opportunity to socialize with other guests. Other guests transfered out of Tent City after just one night due to "lack of air conditioning". As you can see, Tent City is a unique experience for those wanting more of a "nature experience".

Sadly, I became ill on my way to the resort and was confined to camp for my entire stay. The resort offers MANY activities during the day that I was not able to participate in. Just some of the offered activites: horse back riding, atv riding, hiking, mountain biking, river rafting, jet skiing, golf, bird hunting, fishing, and more.

Overall, we were very impressed with our stay at The Resort at Paws Up and hope to return soon. Potential visitors should note that in addition to the price of lodging, Tent City has a mandatory meal plan and a two night minimum stay. Any activitles that you schedule cost extra as well. It is a good idea to call the resort and get a complete cost quote. Finally, although the resorts website claims that Tent City has wireless Internet, we found that this just wasn't true. I preferred to not have internet so that I could leave society and job behind, but their website DOES list it as an amenity so I thought I would mention it.

Resort at Paws Up Photo Gallery

- Aaron Walton