Away from the Crowds in Montana

Montana is a landlocked state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. One of its nicknames is “Big Sky Country.”

Blue Horses—These giant metal horses graze on a hilltop near the Montana highway. These are larger-than-life statues that were sculpted from steel. Local artist Jim Dolan installed these in 2013 on land donated by the Wheat Mountain Grain Company. There are 39 metallic horses standing on the land. Each of the horses is painted with blue and white stripes to give their forms a sense of depth as well as manes made of polyester rope that can sway realistically in the wind.

The Boiling River flows into the Gardner River and is located two miles from the Yellowstone National Park North Gate. Hot and cold water flow together, gathering in small stone pools, creating natural hot tubs. It is among the few legal thermal soaking areas in Yellowstone.

Standing among the grasslands north of Yellowstone National Park is Chico Hot Springs Giant Chicken. You’ll come upon the chicken while hiking, mountain biking, or horseback riding because as you follow a path, suddenly there he is, a bit hidden from view by hills.

A colossal concrete penguin was created by town of Cut Bank resident Ron Gustafson over thirty years ago. The base of the statue proclaims this town as "the coldest spot in the nation." In the wintertime, the temperature usually does not rise above freezing.

The Garden of One Thousand Buddhas in the Flathead Valley of western Montana is on a Native American reservation. It is meant to represent the 100 Buddhas believed to have been born during our religious age. It is the vision of Gochen Tulku Sang-ngag Rinpoche.

Garnet Ghost Town is located in the Garnet Mountain Range east of Missoula. The town was built to provide housing for miners, and once all the riches below ground had been found, the town was simply abandoned as it was. When Garnet thrived, it had hotels, saloons, barbershops, a school, and stores for miners and their families.  In 2010, Garnet was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Grasshopper Glacier is located deep in the Beartooth Mountains in the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness. The glacier looks strange because tens of millions of grasshoppers were entombed in its ice.

Havre Beneath the Streets happened after a fire occurred in the town of Havre in 1904 and business owners moved underground. Shops opened up in basements, and business owners created a series of tunnels stretching for a six-block radius.

You can find a general store, a barbershop, and a saloon underground, among other businesses. The underground museum exhibits how life was in the early 1900s.

Holland Lake is a small glacier lake located in the Flathead Valley National Forest. It is a beautiful area to hike in, and visitors can enjoy a waterfall as well as take a longer hike to Upper Holland Lake. You can enjoy camping.

Kootenai Falls and the swinging bridge are located between Libby and Troy. The bridge provides access to the other side of the Kootenai River for a better view of the falls. It is the largest undammed falls in the state.

To the Kootenai tribe, the falls is a sacred site.

At the Wildlife Management Area you can see bighorn sheep, white-tailed deer, and mule deer. Shorebirds, waterfowl, and songbirds can be seen along the river during much of the year.

Medicine Rocks State Park is located in Carter County just outside of Ekalaka. This beautiful ancient site was considered sacred by Native American tribes. These days, the park is mainly used for walking, biking, wildlife viewing, and learning more about our ancient past.

Ringing rocks is a strange phenomenon where piles of rocks “ring.” They are located near Butte and will ring melodically when tapped gently with a hammer. These rocks are part of the edge of the Boulder Batholith, a geological formation.

The rock’s composition and connection patterns create the condition that causes the rocks to ring when struck.