The Resort at Paws Up

Backcountry living in the Montana Rockies never felt quite so luxe. Deep in the heart of the American West, an easy 40 minutes from Missoula airport (and another 40 minutes from the exact middle of nowhere), the Resort at Paws Up is for the traveler who wants a wilderness escape to include all the comforts of civilization.

The lodgings here come complete with full kitchens, laundry, and in most cases a fireplace or a wood-burning stove. The design may be rustic, but the comforts are modern, with flat-screet TVs and the kind of capacious spa-resort bathrooms. Come summer, there’s five-star camping in the Tent City, and for more ambitious tent campers, the equally plush Encampment at Bull Creek lies at the end of a twelve-mile horseback ride.

As for activities, they include just about anything you can imagine doing in the mountains, with the notable exception of downhill skiing — think fly-fishing, mountain biking, dog sledding, river rafting. It’s a spa resort for guys who are too tough for spa resorts; or, alternately, it’s a wilderness camp for those who demand luxury-hotel comforts. It’s not cheap, not by a long shot, but if you want to combine mountain-West ruggedness with white-glove service, this is the place to do it.

How to get there: The Resort at Paws Up is approximately a 40-minute drive from Missoula International Airport and 6 1/2 hours from Jackson Hole.