50 Wild Places: Celebrating Montana's Outdoors
50 wild adventures in Montana's outdoors.
(50) updates to this series since
50 Wild Places
Celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act with this slideshow highlighting 50 wild adventures in Montana's outdoors.
POLEBRIDGE — It doesn’t have to be an “official” wilderness for your destination to provide a wild Montana experience.
SEELEY LAKE — Close enough to host a bachelor party, but far enough to experience the Bob Marshall Wilderness, Pyramid Lake serves many people…
NOXON — For an awe-inspiring wilderness experience that grandma and her grandchildren can enjoy, head for the Ross Creek Giant Cedars Natural Area.
CONDON — Crystal Lake holds the unusual distinction of having three trails to choose from — all with different challenges, but all leading int…
POLEBRIDGE — One of the largest lakes in the nation where the motors have to stop at the shoreline hides in the northwest corner of Glacier Na…
DARBY — The giant stair-step nature of the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness gets a great display on the way to Chaffin Lake.
ABSAROKEE — It’s a long way up to Froze-To-Death Plateau, like 26 switchbacks rising 3,000 feet in roughly two miles. But as the saying goes, …
The Rattlesnake Wilderness embodies the idea – and the reality — of compromise.
CONDON — The biggest challenge of getting to Heart Lake is deciding which Heart to seek.
If you prefer your wilderness in small doses, the Humbug Spires has your medicine.
FORT SMITH — The problem with Bighorn Canyon is that it’s not supposed to be here, at least in visitors’ expectations.
ST. REGIS — Every bit of Western Montana’s diverse landscape is accounted for in the three miles to Hub Lake.
ST. MARY — Glacier National Park’s Triple Divide area holds the centerpiece jewel in the Crown of the Continent. What it lacks in tourist atte…
PHILIPSBURG — The Anaconda-Pintler Wilderness isn’t a top tourist destination in Montana, but it’s a great escape if you’re looking to get a t…
Pilots often make multiple approaches at Montana’s only wilderness airstrip to avoid elk, deer and other wildlife grazing in their flight path.
It’s nearly impossible to enter Meriwether Canyon in the 28,000-acre Gates of the Mountains Wilderness without thinking about the history of Montana.
STEVENSVILLE — St. Mary or St. Mary’s?
EAST GLACIER — If you hike to Buffalo Lakes and beyond in the Badger-Two Medicine area, you’ll probably spend as much time staring across the …
DILLON — The abundance of high mountain lakes in southwestern Montana presents innumerable great opportunities to get into the wild.
BIGFORK — The “high” part of high mountain lakes can discourage some hikers, so that’s where the Jewel Basin comes in handy.
BUTTE — Although the 2.5-mile hike to the top of Haystack Mountain, northeast of Butte, is a little on the strenuous side, the reward at the s…
STEVENSVILLE — Kootenai Canyon has a dedicated, year-round fan club whose members rarely meet.
WEST GLACIER — Situated at the north end of the Lewis Range and with views across the valley to the Livingston Range, Glacier National Park’s …
DAYTON — Wild Horse Island State Park on Flathead Lake is one of the real treasures of Montana’s state park system.
CRAIG — The Dearborn River offers your paddling Goldilocks a classic three-bears set of options.
MELROSE — Mountain goats, three crystal-clear lakes filled with trout, and a short side trip to see historic charcoal kilns are waiting for th…
SUPERIOR – It’s humbling how many times you can miss the trail on a 2.5-mile hike.
The gray and green dome of Stuart Peak stands above downtown Missoula and the North Hills, within reach nearly any day of the year.
GLACIER NATIONAL PARK – Legend has it, park rangers opened the doors of the Ptarmigan Tunnel one spring to be greeted by a hungry – read, grum…
DARBY – The 101-mile primitive Magruder Corridor Road offers a unique opportunity for a windshield tour of the largest unroaded block of land …
If you want to cross the Continental Divide in Glacier National Park and are looking for more adventure than walking past the sign atop Going-…
MANY GLACIER – Midsummer crowds on the Grinnell Glacier trail can inspire complacency. But rest assured: This is wild country and choice bear …
ROCK CREEK — There was a lot of debate about including Welcome Creek in this list of 50 Wild Places in Montana.
LEWISTOWN – There is no heart of the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge, but there is a circulatory system.
WEST GLACIER — On some hikes, you never cross a contour line but feel like you’ve still climbed a mountain.
DARBY – We think of mountains as solid, singular things. But what if they’re really just tall piles of little rocks?
JACKSON — Big Hole, big mountains.
RIVULET — You can’t see the fish of Fish Creek from the Williams Peak fire lookout, but you can scan the whole of Montana’s second-largest sta…
AUGUSTA – As appetizers go, Whitewater Falls makes a great introduction to the banquet of backcountry behind it.
GOLD CREEK — In the northern reaches of the Rattlesnake Wilderness, Boulder Lake provides solitude not found closer to the main trailhead on t…
NINEMILE – Before you lace up your boots and strap on a backpack to climb the lone mountain soaring on Missoula’s western horizon, it’s probab…
ENNIS – There’s nothing quite like Sphinx Mountain in all of the Madison Range.
CONDON – It’s easy to find Cold Lakes on the U.S. Forest Service’s Mission Mountains Wilderness map: They’re the ones rimmed with reddish-pink…
ST. IGNATIUS – It’s a favorite view for many Montanans, when they top Ravalli Hill on U.S. Highway 93 west of here and the Mission Mountains e…
AUGUSTA – Straight Creek sounds like a failure of imagination in naming, until you understand the peculiar nature of strike valleys.
AUGUSTA – Backcountry experiences usually start at a trailhead and follow a path in the dirt. Fans of the Sun River Wildlife Management Area t…
BYNUM – The Rocky Mountain Front has a few front doors, and they’re doozies.
CARDWELL — A popular and relatively easy trek into the heart of the Tobacco Root Mountains, about 30 miles southeast of Butte, is Lost Cabin Lake.
HERON – A wannabe wilderness in Montana’s northwest corner has plenty of real wild country for those wishing a remote experience.
MISSOULA — The Flathead River pays no heed to the guard stations on either side of the U.S.-Canadian border as it flows along the spine of the…
Celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act with 50 wild adventures in Montana's outdoors.
MISSOULA — If you can't hike like Bob Marshall, then you can always follow along in spirit and get a good photo while you're at it.
Years of legislative wrangling squeezed down to hours of last-minute negotiating to get a bundle of Montana land bills into the National Defen…
MISSOULA — You’ve talked your friend/spouse/child into shouldering a heavy pack, enduring a painful blister, incurring dozens of mosquito bite…
During the past week several opinions have been written about how terrible it is that the Legislature cut spending authority for Fish Wildlife…
GREAT FALLS — Two adults and three juveniles have been charged with spray-painting graffiti and committing other vandalism at Sluice Boxes Sta…