Lolo's October happens west of the stoplight. Almost everything with a date on it this month sits along the Highway 12 corridor, from Travelers' Rest State Park near town out to Lolo Hot Springs Resort. Most of those dates fall on two Saturdays, October 10 and October 17. Miss those two and the rest of the month is mostly ordinary hours and one Halloween event.
There's a second schedule running at the same time. On October 1, the park at the near end of the corridor moved to its fall week. Some of what draws people there is now only available five days out of seven, and one exhibit that ran all summer has closed.
Travelers' Rest Moved to Its Short Week on October 1
Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks lists two sets of hours for Travelers' Rest State Park at 6717 Highway 12 W. The grounds stay on one schedule all year, and the visitor center changes with the season.
- Park grounds: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily
- Visitor center, May 1 through September 30: 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
- Visitor center, October 1 through April 30: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday
- Closed Monday and Tuesday for the visitor center during the fall and winter season
- Full closures: Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas and New Year's Day
That matters more than it sounds. The self-guided site tour starts with a brochure you pick up at the visitor center, then follows markers around a half-mile loop trail. The building also holds the Seasons of the Salish exhibit, Lewis and Clark Expedition replicas, a diorama of the expedition's campsite at Travelers' Rest, Native American beadwork and handcrafts, and natural history specimens. On a Monday or Tuesday from now through April, the grounds are open but the building isn't.
The summer show is gone too. Ursus Horribilis: The Grizzly Bear Illustrated, 50 vintage prints by noted artists, ran May 10 through September 30, 2026. Anyone who meant to see it before fall is out of luck. What replaces it on the calendar is a single afternoon.
Saturday, October 10
At the park. The Travelers' Rest Connection lists Kate Davis: Works from a Lifetime Outdoors, with a chance to meet the artist and her friends from Raptors of the Rockies on October 10 from 1 to 3 p.m. It's a Saturday, which puts it inside the visitor center's fall week.
Families can start the day earlier. Trekker Kids, the park's free series for families with children 10 and under, meets Saturdays in October at 11 a.m. A morning program at 11 and the raptor visit at 1 make a full day at one address.
Up the canyon. Out at Lolo Hot Springs Resort, 38500 US Hwy 12 W, the same date ends with Midnight Margaritas from 8 to 11:45 p.m. The resort bills it as "a magical night of margaritas, music, crafts, and Practical Magic."
The resort's posted soak schedule runs 10 a.m. to midnight on Saturdays, so the pools stay open through the whole event. Put together, October 10 runs from an 11 a.m. kids' program near town to a soak that can last until midnight, all on one highway.
Saturday, October 17, Hour by Hour
The second Saturday is busier. Three separate events from two different hosts overlap within the same hour, and Trekker Kids meets again at the park.
- 10 a.m. W&W Photo sets up a pet portrait booth at Lolo Hot Springs for Spooky Pet Photos, running until 5 p.m. Costumes are welcome but not required. The resort's listing says a "cute, fall-inspired portrait" works fine too.
- 11 a.m. The Boos and Brews Fun Run x Lolo Peak Brewing starts at Lolo Peak Brewery & Grill as part of the Montana Brewery Running Series. The brewery sits at 6201 Brewery Way.
- 11 a.m. Trekker Kids meets at Travelers' Rest for its October Saturday program.
- 11 a.m. The 2nd Annual Flannel Fest + Makers Market opens at Lolo Hot Springs and runs until 7 p.m.
- 7 p.m. Flannel Fest wraps up. The pools stay open on the Saturday soak schedule until midnight.
Three things start at 11 a.m. in three different spots, so October 17 is a day for picking a starting point. The run is tied to the brewery near town, and the market and pet portraits are tied to the resort up the canyon. If you want to do both, the order is simple. Run in the morning, then head west in the afternoon while the market is still going.
The market is set up in a way that tends to bring out small, local sellers. The resort's announcement puts it this way:
Our vendor market kicks off at 11 AM with no vendor fees, so come check out some local makers and small businesses and maybe find something you didn't know you needed.
With no fee to set up a table, a small maker has very little standing between them and a booth. This is only the festival's second year, so the 2026 lineup will likely look different from last year's.
Where to Eat on Those Two Saturdays
Both Saturdays run long, and food along the corridor runs on its own clock.
Lolo Peak Brewery & Grill says it's open seven days a week. Its kitchen serves 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday. On October 17, that means the kitchen opens at the same hour the fun run starts.
Lolo Hot Springs Resort Bar & Restaurant lists hours of 9 a.m. to midnight Friday through Sunday. That covers both Saturdays from the pet booth's opening through the end of Midnight Margaritas. The resort's page doesn't list weekday restaurant hours, so check before planning a midweek dinner there.
The Jack Saloon at 7000 Graves Creek Road publishes a winter schedule. The kitchen runs noon to 9 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, with the bar open until midnight. Sunday through Thursday, the kitchen runs noon to 7 p.m. and the bar until 8. The posted schedule doesn't say when winter hours begin, so call ahead in early October.
Back on US 93, one familiar stop is gone. NBC Montana reported on April 15, 2026, that Bamboo Gardens Restaurant in Lolo was closing permanently. The station said the owner wanted to spend more time with family. The restaurant's address was 11400 US Hwy 93 S.
The Roads Under the Calendar
Getting between these stops depends on two highways, and both have work on file with the state.
On US 93, the Montana Department of Transportation's October 5 construction report lists right-turn-lane work at the Goldenview Lane and Legacy Park Way intersections, mile markers 94.68 and 95.77. The work runs weekdays from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., with single-lane traffic, temporary signals and reduced speeds. The posted window ran from September 14 through "the beginning of October." The crews work weekdays, and the window was set to close around now. Check Montana 511 before a weekday trip through those intersections.
On US 12, the road that carries most of this month's calendar has a project waiting. MDT lists a Lolo Hot Springs Area Bridges project to replace four timber structures on US 12 near the resort. The page lists the project's consultant solicitation date as "TBD."
Closer to town, MDT announced in April 2026 that Bitterroot Trail preservation work at the Lolo Creek bridge would start the week of May 3 and was expected to wrap up by the end of June, weather permitting. On the hillside, Missoula County's 2026 trails bond page says the county applied for $62,619 covering two projects, Woody Mountain and Lolo Hillside. The Lolo Hillside piece would formalize about 1.2 miles of trails and eventually connect them to the Belltower subdivision trails. The page gives no start date.
After the 17th
Once the second Saturday passes, the corridor calendar thins out until the last day of the month. Trekker Kids continues every Saturday in October, including October 24 and 31. Travelers' Rest also lists its Corpse of Discovery Halloween Happening on October 31, which falls on a Saturday this year. The visitor center is open that day under its Wednesday-through-Sunday fall week.
Neither the resort nor the park dates its calendar pages, and schedules can change. Check each venue's own page the morning you go, especially for anything that depends on the visitor center being open.
Highway 12 is where Lolo's October happens, and it's also land that Clint Roberts has known for four generations. If you own along the Lolo Creek corridor or up toward the hot springs and want to know what your property is worth this fall, Clinton Roberts can walk the ground with you. Get your free property valuation.
