"We stayed at the motel for 4 nights during the heat wave earlier this month, July 2024. I was initially concerned about the lack of air conditioning because we prefer our room to be cold, cold, cold, but once we opened the bathroom window and then put the box fan into the main room window and pumped the warm air to the outside, it cooled right down and it wasn't an issue. What a surprise! The room was recently updated but still needs some bathroom accessories (towel racks, hooks) and was otherwise clean and comfortable. There was a coffee maker and a mini fridge. The bed was very comfortable, and I consider myself a mattress snob. There was a stand-up shower (no tub) with nice shower stream with hot water. We also ate at the restaurant, twice for dinner and 4 times for breakfast. All of our meals were excellent with top-notch service. The huckleberry pie was an absolute delight! I would have given 5 stars, however, there was one glaring issue that I must address. We stayed in one of the rooms halfway up the hill, and there is a retaining wall that runs the length of the driveway to the rooms. Along the top of the retaining wall there were several short iron posts (I counted at least 5 of them) that were hammered into the ground, and each post had a steel-jaw leg trap set to catch ground squirrels. Throughout our stay, as we drove up and down the driveway, several of the traps had caught a squirrel with the poor little things screaming and dangling by their caught limbs, fully alive, suffering, and waiting for death. It was beyond horrific. We came to Montana to enjoy nature, the beautiful scenery, and the wildlife. I cannot imagine how a small child would have reacted upon seeing the squirrels in their anguish, flailing around helplessly, trying to free themselves of the trap. While I fully realize that ground squirrels can be a nuisance and destructive, there are better, more humane, ways of eradicating, or at least managing, their numbers. For every squirrel that we encountered caught in the traps, we were able to set them free."
