68 Best Sights in Billings, Little Big Horn, and the Montana Plains, Montana

This 76,000-square-foot complex houses the largest collection of original art and personal objects of legendary cowboy artist Charlie Russell (1864–1926). Russell's more than 4,000 works of art—sculptures, watercolors, oil paintings—primarily portray the vanishing era of the Old West. His log studio and home, built at the turn of the 20th century, are adjacent to the main galleries. A highlight is the bison exhibit: more than 1,000 objects are used to tell the epic story of this Western icon, and you feel the floor tremble as you experience the sensation of being in the middle of a stampede. Also here are collections of paintings by other 19th-century and modern Western artists, interactive exhibits, and a research library.

Covering the era from 1800 to 1900, the Museum of the Upper Missouri highlights the importance of Fort Benton and the role it played as a trading post, military fort, and the head of steamboat navigation. In the summer there are daily guided tours at the adjacent Old Fort Benton, considered the birthplace of Montana; its 1846 blockhouse is the oldest standing structure in the state.

Once home to prehistoric hunters, this spot has yielded more than 30,000 artifacts related to early human history. A paved 3/4-mile trail affords views of the 2,200-year-old cave paintings depicting animal and human figures; if you bring binoculars, you'll be able to appreciate better the subtle detail of the artwork. The largest cave is 160 feet wide and 45 feet deep. A visitor center, open daily in the summer, houses an interpretive area and a gift shop.

When Spanish explorers introduced horses to the Americas, some of the animals inevitably escaped and roamed wild across the land. You can see some of the last members of these breeds in the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range, the first such nationally designated refuge. Approximately 120 horses, generally broken into small family groupings, roam these arid slopes with bighorn sheep, elk, deer, and mountain lions. Coat variations such as grulla, blue roan, dun, and sabino indicate Spanish lineage, as do markings such as dorsal stripes, zebra stripes on the legs, and a stripe on the withers. The best way to view the herds is simply to drive along Highway 37 and look out your window.

The Arapooish Fishing Access Site, 2½ miles northeast of Hardin, is a favorite spot among locals, who pack the family up, set up in a shaded picnic area, cast a line into the Bighorn River, and have a cookout. It's also a prime bird-watching venue.

Set in the ancient Bears Paw Mountains, about 10 miles south of town, is the 10,000-acre Beaver Creek Park, the largest county park in the country. It's a favorite spot for locals, who come here to fish in the two lakes and winding Beaver Creek, camp, picnic, and enjoy the grassy foothills and timbered ridges of this island mountain range surrounded by dryland wheat fields.

The second-highest point in the Big Snowies is Big Snowy, also called Old Baldy. Just 41 feet shorter than Greathouse Peak, the 8,640-foot-high mountain makes an enjoyable climb. A designated path, Maynard Ridge Trail, follows an old jeep road almost to the summit. The peak is a barren plateau with a small rocky outcropping marking the highest point.

At the head of one of the purest cold-water springs in the world is the Big Springs Trout Hatchery. The state's largest cold-water production station nurtures several species of trout and kokanee salmon. The show pond, where you can view oddities such as albino rainbow trout and perhaps even fish weighing a monstrous 15 pounds, is a popular attraction, but the hatchery grounds are a sight in and of themselves and a wonderful spot to enjoy a picnic under giant willow and cottonwood trees. You can see the place where Big Spring Creek spurts from the earth, and the native wildlife—including white-tailed deer, beavers, wood ducks, and belted kingfishers—makes frequent appearances.

Focusing on Native American and early homestead settlement, the 35-acre Bighorn County Historical Museum and Visitor Information Center complex comprises 24 historic buildings that have been relocated to the site. The buildings are open May 1–October 1, and interpretive exhibits in the museum explore the region's Native American and pioneer history. Friendly staff and volunteers help bring life to the museum.

On the north side of the historic part of town is 40-foot-high, 500-foot-wide Black Eagle Falls, one of the places where the Missouri River takes a sharp dive on its 500-foot descent through town. A pedestrian bridge from the parking area leading to an island alongside the falls makes a nice place to watch birds or the water. The adjacent golf courses and baseball diamond give the area plenty of green space and a seminatural feel, although it's hard not to notice the concrete dam looming above.

Atop the Rimrocks, north of downtown and adjacent to Swords Park, lie the graves of H.M. Muggins Taylor, the army scout who carried word of Custer's defeat through 180 miles of hostile territory; Western explorer Yellowstone Kelly; and several outlaws executed in territorial days. A sign tells the story of Crow warriors who blindfolded their horses before riding them off what's now known as Sacrifice Cliff in hopes that the gods would end a smallpox epidemic.

The Bowdoin Wildlife Refuge Headquarters, at the main entrance to Bowdoin, provides information on refuge conditions, species lists, a variety of mounted birds and mammals, and instructions for the auto tour.

The Bowdoin Wildlife Refuge Headquarters, at the main entrance to Bowdoin, provides information on refuge conditions, species lists, a variety of mounted birds and mammals, and instructions for a drivable tour route.

Interpretive signs explain the geology of the rock layers visible on the ½-mi loop of the Cap Rock Nature Trail, which begins on Cains Coulee Road, a few miles from the park entrance. The trail affords excellent views of a natural rock bridge. Beginning at the campground, the 1.5-mi Diane Gabriel Trail loops through both badlands and prairie terrain. At the halfway point a duck-billed-dinosaur fossil is embedded in a cliff. The.5-mi Kinney Coulee Trail starts about 4 mi south of the park entrance and leads 300 feet down a canyon. The terrain here is a bit more forested than elsewhere in the park, but the rock formations are the real stars.

Pioneer relics, blacksmith and cowboy tools, guns, and Native American artifacts are displayed at the Central Montana Museum. The most popular new exhibit is a full-scale replica of a Torosaurus skull found just 65 miles away. Guided tours are available in the summer from Memorial Day through Labor Day.

Bordering the shores of Fort Peck Lake—and extending west more than 100 miles to U.S. 191—is the massive Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge, a 1.1-million-acre preserve teeming with more than 200 species of birds, including bald eagles and game birds; 45 different mammals, including elk, bighorn sheep, antelope, prairie dogs, and deer; and a variety of fish and reptiles. But this is also a refuge for history: each year scientists from around the country march into the preserve, and each year they find something new, whether it's dinosaur bones, buffalo jumps, tepee rings, or an old homesteader's shack. The refuge, one of the largest under the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's management, is open for hiking, horseback riding, fishing, boating, and other activities. Several access roads run through the area; most of these are unpaved, aside from U.S. 191, which runs north–south through the western edge of the refuge.

There are three staffed field stations in the refuge: the Sand Creek Wildlife Station, the Jordan Wildlife Station, and the Fort Peck Wildlife Station. Although they have no public facilities, they are conveniently scattered around the park, and are good sources of information, including maps, road conditions, and points of interest. If they're in, the rangers will help you with directions or problems.

Discover the vistas that inspired Western artist Charles M. Russell on the Charlie Russell Chew-Choo, a vintage 1950s-era train that travels on the old Milwaukee Road tracks through some of the most beautiful and remote landscapes in the state. The tour, which departs from Kingston, about 10 miles northwest of Lewistown, covers 56 miles and lasts 3½ hours. It includes a prime-rib dinner and a cash bar as well as live entertainment and maybe even a holdup. On weekends before Christmas the Chew-Choo transforms into a prairie Polar Express, and there are special Halloween and New Year's Eve runs.

Although many Plains Indian tribes opposed the intrusion of whites into their lands, the Crow did not. Hoping that U.S. troops would keep the rival Cheyenne and Lakota off their lands, the Crow allied themselves with the U.S. government. Ultimately, the army protected Crow territory from the other tribes—but only so it could be settled by whites. Despite the betrayal, the last traditional chief of the Crow, Plenty Coups, strongly encouraged his people to adopt modern ways and cooperate with the U.S. government. At his request, his home and general store in the town of Pryor were preserved as a state park after his death. Note the blending of modern and traditional ways, such as the room of honor in the rear of his log home, meant to parallel the place of honor along the back wall of a tepee. Parks Passports are not valid here.

The Crooked Creek Ranger Station, past the south entrance of the park in Wyoming, is staffed during the summer and offers information as well as a restroom.

In the higher reaches of the mountains is pristine Crystal Lake. There's excellent hiking along interpretive and wildflower trails as well as camping, fossil hunting, and ice-cave exploration. The ice cave is a 5-mile hike from the 28-site campground; June is the best time to see the 30-foot ice pillars formed over the winter. There's a cabin 6 miles from the gate for snowmobilers, cross-country skiers, and snowshoers, but it's closed when the snow is too deep to navigate (which is most of the winter). Motorized boats are not allowed on the lake.

The name of these expansive federal lands is misleading: it should really be "Custer National Forests." Composed of dozens of discrete tracts dotting the landscape from Red Lodge (60 miles southwest of Billings, near Yellowstone National Park) all the way into South Dakota, Custer National Forest is one of the most ecologically diverse federally managed lands. The units in southeast Montana are called the Ekalaka Hills, and like their nearby neighbors in South Dakota, these pine-covered bluffs and mesas are often referred to as "an island of green in a sea of prairie," for good reason. Visible from miles away, the tiny forested ridges appear like mountains in the middle of the grassy plains. Drive any of the four-wheeler roads off Highway 212 between Ashland and Broadus and climb to a timbered ridge. Get out and hike to a vista, where you can breathe the scent of sagebrush from what appears to be a great height, but is only a couple of hundred feet above the prevailing landscape. Deer, turkey and elk inhabit the woods, and herds of pronghorn (the fastest land mammal in North America) roam the plains. Many species of raptors are known to nest here, too. The area is completely undeveloped and offers few services.

Devil’s Canyon Overlook, a few miles north of the Wyoming border, affords breathtaking views of the point where narrow Devil's Canyon joins sheer-walled Bighorn Canyon. The overlook itself is on a cliff 1,000 feet above the lake. Look for fossils in the colorful rock layers of the canyon walls.

For centuries Native Americans hunted bison by stampeding them off a cliff at this 2,000-acre park, which is sacred to the state's original residents. This is one of the largest and best-interpreted buffalo jumps in the United States. The mile-long cliff affords a spectacular view of the Rocky Mountains, the Missouri River, and the plains. An interpretive center focuses on the culture of the Plains Indians before white settlement. You can hike the 1.5-mile-long trail to the top of the hill where buffalo runners led herds over the cliff to their demise.

Once the largest military reservation west of the Mississippi, Fort Assinniboine was established in 1879 in the aftermath of the Battle of the Little Bighorn. At its peak, the fort had more than 100 brick and stone buildings and nearly 500 men. The soldiers stationed here brought along their families, who lived on the post. As a result, the Victorian-era fort became a cultural center as well as a military one, hosting plays and dances along with parades and training exercises. The fort is now a museum, and many of the imposing buildings still stand, although they appear eerily deserted. In fact, a few are storage or administrative facilities for the Northern Research Agricultural Center. Others are open to public tours, which begin at the H. Earl Clack Memorial Museum.

The 18,000-square-foot Fort Peck Interpretive Center features interpretive displays recounting the history and significance of the dam's construction, wildlife of the lower river and Missouri River Breaks. You'll find one of the most striking life-size dinosaur displays in the West, a reproduction of Peck's Rex, a tyrannosaurus Rex unearthed near Fort Peck, as well as other local dinosaur discoveries. The center also features the largest aquariums in Montana, filled with the native and introduced fish species of Fort Peck Reservoir and the Missouri River. Guided tours of the dam and its power plants are available April through October.

The drive from Makoshika State Park to Fort Peck will take you along the Hi-Line, otherwise known as U.S. 2. Drive Highway 200 to Circle, then north on Highway 13, one of Montana's designated Scenic Backcountry Byways, or drive north through the wide, fertile Yellowstone River valley on Highway 16 to Sidney, then Culbertson, where you'll catch U.S. Highway 2. Either way, you'll travel through the Fort Peck Reservation. Like most of eastern Montana, much of the land here is beautifully austere; at nearly 2 million acres, the reservation is home to only 9,400 tribal members. However, the reservation does have a bustling industrial center, a community college, and an interesting tribal cultural center and museum in Poplar.

At the peak of dam construction, nearly 11,000 workers lived in Fort Peck; together with their families, they made up a thriving population center of 50,000. To help keep the populace entertained, the Army Corps of Engineers built a movie house in 1934. It was supposed to be a temporary structure, but instead it eventually became the Fort Peck Summer Theatre. The chalet-style building is a venue for live entertainment on weekend nights in summer.