Big Sky Country, referred to by residents as the Last Best Place, is home to some of the best scenery and outdoor recreation in the country. It’s also rich in frontier history and cowboy culture. On your next visit to the fourth-largest state, consider adding some of the following 15 ideas to your itinerary.
1. Cabinet Mountains
Located in the northwestern part of the state close to the Idaho border, the Cabinets are a rugged mountain range that a lot of people don’t know about. You can enjoy hiking, camping, and fishing there without all the crowds of Glacier and Yellowstone.
2. Flathead Lake
This large natural lake southwest of Glacier is one of the most scenic areas in the state. It’s popular with people who enjoy boating, camping, and fishing or who just like lakeside scenery.
3. The Bitterroots
The Bitterroot Range is a series of mountain ranges that define most of the Idaho-Montana border. The Bitterroot Mountains, on the other hand, are the peaks that rise to the west of the Bitterroot Valley south from Missoula to Nez Perce Pass. Out there is some of Montana’s wildest, most rugged country.
4. Virginia City
If you’re interested in mining history, you’ll love this little town in a remote section of the state. It’s not overly touristy, and you can learn a lot about the mining legacy here from museums, ruins, and restored buildings.
5. Going-To-The-Sun Road
This is the main road through Glacier National Park, and it’s one of the most spectacular drives in the world. It’s only fully open during the summer, and it passes lakes, waterfalls, and meadows as it climbs to Logan Pass at timberline on the Continental Divide, yielding views of some of the most incredible mountain scenery in the country.
6. Grinnell Glacier
Located in the Many Glacier area of Glacier National Park, this glacier is one of the park’s largest. A trail leads to its edge, where throughout the summer, icebergs broken off from the glacier float in a lake at its base.
7. Iceberg Lake
Also found in the Many Glacier area, Iceberg Lake is a beautiful hike and lives up to its name for much of the summer. It also has spectacular wildflowers, and there are frequent sightings of grizzly bears here, so be alert.
8. Our Lake
Everyone driving between Glacier and Great Falls sees the rugged mountains to the west, but relatively few go into them. This is the Rocky Mountain Front, a major gateway to the massive Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex. Our Lake, also called Hidden Lake, is a blue gem high in those mountains, and the trail to it, located near Choteau, is only 3.5 miles each way.
9. Great Falls
This city on the Missouri River has a lot to offer in amenities. Nearby attractions not to miss include the actual Great Falls, Benton Lake National Wildlife Refuge, and Ulm Pishkun State Park, where for centuries Native Americans drove bison over a cliff so they could harvest their meat, fur, bones, and more.
10. Gates of the Mountains Wilderness
Just outside Helena, the state capital, is this popular recreational area. Also popular nearby for boating, swimming, camping, and fishing is Canyon Ferry Lake, created by a dam on the Missouri.
11. Madison River
Montana is unofficially the fly fishing capital of the world, and people come from all over to try its many blue-ribbon trout streams. The Madison River is arguably the best for the sheer number of trout inhabiting some stretches, and the town of Ennis is the base for a lot of it.
12. Gallatin Canyon
Gallatin Canyon runs along the Gallatin River for several miles between Big Sky and Gallatin Gateway, near Bozeman. The best way to experience it is by boat, and there are outfitters who can take you on exciting half- or full-day trips on whitewater rafts.
13. Mammoth Hot Springs
This famous site is located in the Montana section of Yellowstone. It’s known for its colorful terraces formed from minerals deposited by the hot springs, where the flows are constantly changing.
14. Beartooth Highway
With its end in two Montana towns, Red Lodge and Cooke City, this drive, which also runs through Wyoming for a significant portion, has some of the best mountain scenery in the country that you can experience by car. Its apex is Beartooth Pass, where the road winds through a section of alpine tundra with views that on clear days seem to go on forever.
15. Fort Benton
Experience Montana history in this town, which was established in 1846 and is the oldest continuously occupied settlement in the state. It’s also at the western end of the Upper Missouri National Wild and Scenic River and thus serves as a launch point for boat trips down it.
16. The Missouri Breaks
Now mostly preserved as a national monument, the Missouri Breaks is a portion of the Missouri River where the river flows through rugged, colorful badlands and canyons. It’s incredibly remote, and at the end, you’re in the outstanding and important Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge.
17. Pompeys Pillar National Monument
Not far east of Billings along I-94 and the Yellowstone River is this historic site. It’s a huge sandstone formation located at a natural ford of the river, which made it an important landmark for explorers and pioneers. Many visitors left behind markings and inscriptions, including one by William Clark of the legendary Lewis and Clark expedition.
18. Makoshika State Park
Found outside Glendive at the eastern edge of the state, this park offers a preview of what you can see much more of in Theodore Roosevelt National Park, a short drive away in North Dakota, and in Badlands National Park in South Dakota. The park has a spectacular display of wildly shaped and colored badlands formations with far fewer people than you’ll see at those national parks..
19. Medicine Rocks State Park
Found near the tiny town of Ekalaka, this park is in the remote and starkly beautiful southeastern corner of the state. Sandstone pillars up to 80’ high with wild shapes and features dominate the scenery here. The site was sacred to ancient Native Americans, and you can find many examples of their rock art here.
20. Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument
For two days in June 1876, Sioux warriors battled the forces of the U.S. Army’s 7th Cavalry Regiment, led by General George Armstrong Custer. Known famously as Custer’s Last Stand, the battle was a major defeat for the Army and was where Custer lost his life.
15 Must-Dos on Your Next Trip to Lake Tahoe
Lake Tahoe on the California-Nevada border makes a lot of lists of the most beautiful places in America. There’s also a lot to do there, with a wide range of outdoor recreation, great dining, resorts, nightlife, and more. If it’s your first time going or if you’re going back, consider adding some of the following places to your itinerary.
15 Must-Dos on Your Next Trip to Lake Tahoe
The World’s 5 Friendliest and 5 Unfriendliest Cities
Some cities welcome visitors and want them to be there. Other cities are rude to visitors and would just as soon see you leave. It can be jarring to be in an unfriendly city, though some of the world’s most enticing cities rank high on the rudeness scale.
When you visit a friendly city, it’s much easier to soak in the culture and meet the locals. Rough Guides readers voted on the cities for their level of friendliness. According to Rough Guides, these are the world’s friendliest and unfriendliest cities.
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