A very big sky
Montana bears its moniker, Big Sky State, for a reason. Much of its territory is a great wide open, relatively flat and sparsely populated land. In addition, the landscape in western Montana encompasses mountains plus numerous glaciers, rivers and lakes. Visitors are attracted by all these natural features because they are beautiful, largely unsullied by humankind and perfect for a whole raft of outdoor activities.

The state’s fans also come for rodeos and other activities reminiscent of the Old West, Native American experiences and — because of Montana’s renowned dinosaur finds — even a little paleontology.

About Montana
A line in a country western song includes the invitation to “meet me in Montana...” It is pretty clear who is most likely to take up that invite: venturer types, based on what they say about their trips and based on the different activities available to them. Most travelers who visit the western U.S. first mention the grandeur and beauty of its scenery, and Montana is no exception.

What makes it different from other favorites? The climate is cooler and drier than in Oregon, cooler and wetter than in New Mexico or Utah, and Montana is more sparsely populated than any of these states.  Like visitors to Colorado, Montana fans rave about the special quality of the mountains, but the great granite slabs of Montana provide a different look from the Rockies to the south. It seems that almost everyone who visits Montana spends time at Glacier National Park where the mountain scenery is especially breathtaking and there is almost no limit to the outdoor activities available.

Also worth noting is the fact that Montana attracts visitors from all over the U.S., possibly attributable to its famous national park.  More than most, venturers appreciate the isolation of the parks, mountains and waterways of the state. They think the lack of congestion has kept the sky and air clear, the waters clean and unpolluted, and the wildlife abundant. Activities are almost entirely geared to the outdoors. Montana is the place for backpacking, camping, hiking, fishing, skiing, tracking bighorn sheep, digging for dinosaur bones and much more.

When centrics describe their trips to Montana, they talk about the appeal of a slower pace of life. They can enjoy the splendor of the scenery and appreciate Montana’s history and be active, too, from the comfort of a first class ranch-style resort. Even those who like city life seem to appreciate that this is one of the last areas of truly unspoiled, sparsely populated wilderness in the U.S.

If rugged scenery and outdoor areas created by glaciers sound appealing to you, call your traveling companions and, as the song urges, meet them in Montana!

• Follow the Montana Dinosaur Trail, or at least some part of it. Its 13 stops take you all across this big state. You can dig for bones at some sites. Check http://mtdinotrail.org for the list of sites where you can dig.

• Plan a stay at one of Montana’s seven Indian reservations. Accommodations range widely, from hotels or B&Bs to camping out.

• Go whitewater rafting; Montana has scores of outfitters ready to set you up.

• Montana is home to at least four testicle festivals, including the world’s largest in Clinton. Revelers, many arriving by bike, eat about 2.5 tons of the boneless protein in five days. Between meals, events in Clinton include cowpie Bingo and a cowpie toss, plus wet T-shirt and hairy-chest contests. The humor is corny and crude; this is for adults only.

• Choose a dogsledding adventure. With instructions from your guide, you can mush your own team of huskies. Multiday guided trips by dogsled are an option, too.

• Go waterskiing or scuba diving in Flathead Lake State Park.

• Participate in the three-day spring roundup of horses, a three-day drive that takes the animals through the middle of Three Forks as they pass from winter to summer pastures. Some riding experience is a must.
Montana Horses leases these animals to guest ranches, trail ride outfits and other businesses that provide fun for tourists and others.

• Or, join a cattle drive, which will require some riding experience, too. The idea is that you help manage the cattle; expect to sleep in a tent.

• Arrange an outfitter-guided llama pack trek of three to five days in the Flathead National Forest.

• Sign on for a wagon train adventure. You’ll travel on horseback through the wilderness, with a wagon as your home on (wooden) wheels.

• The battle of the Little Big Horn is one of the most dramatic episodes in the history of the West. Attend the Custer’s Last Stand reenactment, which is held each year in late June as part of the annual Little Big Horn Days in Hardin. Also, visit the real site, the Little Bighorn Battlefield, which is a national monument.

• Overnight at a chalet or lodge inside Glacier National Park, the better to enjoy some portion of its 50 glaciers and 200 lakes and to view the wildlife.

• Visit the Pictograph Cave State Park southeast of Billings for a look at the pictorial records left on the walls of the caves by ancient cultural groups.

• Go skiing, and one option is Big Mountain Resort in Whitefish. If you are around at the end of the season, attend the Big Mountain Furniture Race, a competition to see which (helmet-protected) participant can stop his or her ski-mounted couch (or whatever) closest to target at the bottom of a beginner’s trail.

• If yours is a summer trip, ski at the Ski and Snowboard Camp outside Red Lodge. The season, roughly Memorial Day to Independence Day, is limited because the access road, the Beartooth Highway, is closed until late May.

• Visit the Lewis and Clark Caverns State Park, a complex of vaulted chambers and passageways whose colors and formations make it one of the most beautiful in the country. Warning: It’s cold down there, so bring a jacket!

• Take a ranch vacation, and that can mean anything from staying at a working cattle ranch to relaxing at a resort property. On the more adventurous side, your ranch vacation can include campfires, cattle drives, pack trips, trail rides, wagon trains and rodeos.

• Go fly-fishing, or ice fishing, or fish from a boat. For starters, after satisfying licensing requirements, you have the use of more than 300 public access sites maintained by the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. Other land management agencies also provide access sites for fishing.

• Attend a powwow or other Native American event. The Crow Fair and Rodeo is the largest Indian celebration in Montana. Activities include daily parades, an all-Indian rodeo, wild-horse racing and Indian dancing.

• Fish in the Beavertail Hill State Park; rent one of the Sioux-style tepees which accommodate six to eight people each.

• There are many choices for scenic drives. One is the Going-to-the-Sun Highway in Glacier National Park in the northwestern part of the state. Park activities also include hiking (you determine the length of the hike and level of difficulty), bus tours and lake cruises.

• Attend the Billings Night Rodeo, which is available almost every night from June through August. Country western dancing often follows.

• See the Charles M. Russell Museum in Great Falls. It specializes in the works of that noted cowboy artist.

• Ride Helena’s Last Chancer, a tour train that takes you on a narrated journey to highlight the capital city’s history.

• Visit a ghost town. Montana has plenty, but there is more fun to be had visiting those that are not truly ghosts these days. In Virginia City, visitors can take steam train rides, attend storytelling sessions, visit the graves of outlaws in Boot Hill Cemetery and see live demonstrations of 19th century trades.
Other popular ghost towns are Bannack, Elkhorn, Garnet and Nevada City.

• Play golf on one of the state’s more than 70 golf courses, but don’t hit the deer or the elk that may turn up on the links. They are real.

• Mingle with lovers of dinosaur bones — or dinosaur lore — at the June Montana Dinosaur Festival in the town of Malta.

• When it is time to relax, choose from one of Montana’s more than two dozen developed hot-springs destinations. They provide a range of comforts, which can include therapeutic massage, Olympic-sized pools, soaking tubs and steam rooms.

• Sample the beer at one or more of the state’s microbreweries. See http://visitmt.com/tripplanner/wheretogo/brew.htm for locations.

• For a night out, join a Wagonride Dinner offered by Last Chance Ranch, Helena. You’ll travel on horse-drawn wagons to the Moose Meadow Tipi, Montana’s largest Indian teepee, for a family-style dinner followed by cowboy coffee and live western entertainment.