Twenty-five miles from Glacier National Park, Grouse Mountain Lodge offers a quintessential Montana experience. The picturesque 145-room lodge also provides guests with a variety of golf, spa, and meeting amenities. The lodge adjoins the Whitefish Lake Golf Club, Montana’s only 36-hole facility, where pine and birch trees line the well-manicured fairways of the North and South Courses. These favorites combine with eight other area courses to earn Flathead Valley a spot on Golf Digest’s list of the 50 greatest golf destinations in the world.
The par-72, 6,579-yard North Course boasts spectacular views of Big Mountain from its fourth tee, while the sixteenth and seventeenth holes play out along water hazards. Guests end their round by ringing a large bell so that the foursome behind them can hit safely to the blind green.
At the par-72, 6,563-yard South Course, Holes No. 6 through No. 9 skirt the shores of Lost Coon Lake, replete with shorebirds and deer. Players need all their skill to hit the seventh-hole green, set tight between a bunker and the lake.
After a round, visitors retire to the Deck and Patio for outdoor dining on the South Course’s eighteenth hole. Those with energy to burn head for the lobby’s activity desk, where the Montana Adventure Company books river rafting, fly-fishing, and horseback riding excursions as well as trips to Glacier National Park.
For Rocky Mountain pampering, the hotel shuttle whisks guests to Remedies Day Spa. Just five minutes away, this charming spa prepares fresh herbal concoctions for each treatment. Favorites include the Great Scrub Rub, which blends essential oils with sugar or sea salt, and the Flathead Hot River Rock Massage, using river stones soaked in lemongrass oil.
Grouse Mountain Lodge celebrated its twentieth anniversary in 2004 by remodeling its guest rooms, lobby, and conference facilities, which host groups of 25 to 300. With award-winning dining in The Grill and The Wine Room, plus a professional banquet staff, the lodge brings big-city sophistication to an incomparable natural setting.