Gibson Mansion prides itself  in giving our Motorcycle guest preferential treatment. We know how your bikes are your pride and joy and we like to pamper them as well as you when you stay with us. So we offer you a choice in parking, either in our secure gated drive or right up on our porch! 

After a long ride through the country side you may want to just relax in our private gardens. We can recommend and line you out with one of the many local restaurants that will deliver dinner right to you. Feel like going out? Not a problem we can call a cab so your bike can rest and you can let someone else do the driving for the evening. Does your bike need a little TLC tune up? Missoula Harley-Davidson can help get your bike in tip top shape.

Fuel yourself for another day of exploring Montana with our  coffee/tea tray with fresh baked scones brought to your room and then a full gourmet breakfast in the dining room, all at the time you select.

Don’t let summer escape without seeing the Big Sky, plan your route and book your room it is that easy.

Northwest Montana is known for wildlife, Rugged Mountain scenes and Glacier National Park. The Park is celebrating its 100th year of magnificent Mountain peaks and glaciers, making it the perfect year to come and explore the endless beauty.

Continue to explore the Montana landscape and visit Yellowstone National Park on its southern border. Melting pots, pristine rivers, and wildlife abound in this wonderful park.

Many visitors find these two parks the perfect combination for their summer vacation. As you plan your route you will find that Missoula is situated half-way between these two treasures. This makes Missoula and our Inn the perfect resting point in your adventure. Missoula is known for its Arts, History, and love of diversity. Concerts in the parks, endless walking trails, smoke jumpers center, numerous museums, or local talent playing in the pubs there is always something taking place. Spend the evening exploring Missoula and then enjoy one of the many fabulous local restaurants.

Make this summer vacation a time of relaxing in Montana, you will wish you never had to go back to the city!

Hiking in Montana

It was a beautiful February day, clear skies and the temperatures in the mid 50′s…that is correct 50′s. Sad to say our snow pack levels are wwwaaayy down and with the warm weather, Tom and I were anxious to hit some of our favorite mountain trails. We didn’t know if we could make it to the trailhead in our Smart car, but figured is was a nice day for a drive and would go as far on the forest service road as we could.

Well to our surprise and pleasure we were able to drive to the trail head with no troubles. Like I said it is scary because we should not be able to get a non 4 wheel drive vehicle to that elevation, 5,000 ft at trailhead, in February!

Peyton, our 2 1/2 year old black lab, was very excited to be out in the forest. She was so excited that when it came time for the photo shot I got a little nervous of her being on the cliff edge. So being the over protective one in the group I held onto her collar during the shot. In all reality if she would have run forward it would have just meant we both went over the edge, and any dog person knows that dogs know the boundaries better then we humans….it just made me feel better.

Looking back to the "city" of Hamilton

The Bitterroot valley is one of the great treasures of Western Montana and the trail we took today gave us the best of both worlds. Looking back from where we had came was the valley and the town of Hamilton, but before us was the Blodgett canyon. Known for its jagged peaks and glacially craved canyon over 4,000 ft below.

Blodgett Canyon...a Montana treasure

With my winter blues gone and my spring fever beginning, it was another glorious day in Montana no matter what season you call it!

Nancy catching the spring fever!

Gibson Mansion Bed and Breakfast built in 1903 is one of many Historic mansions in Missoula Montana. This home was relocated from it’s original location of 817 Gerald Ave. to 823 39th Street in 1979. Because of this move out of the original district, it currnently does not qualify for the National Historic Registry.

You would think I would have made it an even 50 trays, but the shelves are bursting as is. It always amazes me to plant a seed that is so tiny you cannot pick up just one at a time and then by the end of the summer it is 2 foot tall!

Every year I plant my usual 300 plus zinna’s of all varieties. Then they are the other stables of asters, sunflowers (pollen-less as to not make such a mess on the tables when brought into the house), snap dragons, marigolds (something the deer do not eat), alyssum, black eyed susan vines, bachelor buttons, comos…and the list goes on. I try a new flower every year and this year it is called 4 o’clock. I know really nothing about them so it will be interested to see how they do. It is always fun to see a new style of leaf sprouting.

In May of 2007 the crew of 6 began scraping and taking layers of 100 years of paint off and in some areas just sanding the bare wood. Of course it was also one of the hottest summers in Missoula, so being against a white house that draws heat and using heat guns it was a grueling task….but so worth it.

It went from every extreme with the weather, like I said the 105 degree days in the summer to finishing in the end of October in snow and freezing temperatures. I can honestly say I don’t remember a painting project where you had issues with it being too hot to paint and then to cold to paint.

The end result was beautiful, Gibson Mansion Bed and Breakfast now almost radiates with a shine so bright you have to wear sunglasses! It is amazing how it transformed all the ornate details of the exterior. They just don’t do that kind of craftsmanship anymore.

Weddings at the Mansion are by far more elegant with the renovations! It is wonderful to see the Historic mansion being used as a backdrop for outdoor wedding and special events.

The early wild flowers in bloom where so spectacular, with the fresh mountain air. The creeks are flowing heavy and COLD with the winter snow melt, it was just warm enough out that it tempted you to stick a toe in the water. However our 8 month old black lab thought it was plenty warm enough to enjoy a dip.

It makes us excited to reach our goal of hiking everyone of the hikes in the book “Day hikes around Missoula Montana” by Robert Stone. There are 85 hikes in this book, all within one hour or less of our front door! We have done probably half of them and love getting out in the great outdoors. The book is great in letting you know what the elevation gain is and how long it will take to do the hike. We did the Larry Creek hike today, and it was a nice easy hike and great to start the season out.