Southwest Montana

Southwest Montana is what many people think of when they imagine Montana: rugged, mountainous and interspersed with clear rivers and streams. Ranchers still ride horses and elk and bear wander the mountains. This is also Montana's gold country, where Old West prospectors repeatedly struck it rich.

• 46.592778-112.0351 Helena — the state capital, where the gold rush created more millionaires per capita than anywhere else in the world.
• 46.127778-112.9583332 Anaconda — known for its giant smoke stack.
• 46.006389-112.5297223 Butte — the "Richest Hill on Earth" from its massive copper mining operations, once the largest city between Chicago and Seattle.
• 46.396111-112.7330564 Deer Lodge — small town, long-time home of the state prison, now converted into a collection of museums.
• 45.215833-112.6341675 Dillon — Small rural town.
• 45.3074-111.9686 Nevada City — a ghost town made into an open-air museum.
• 46.333056-113.2966677 Philipsburg — a charming mining community surrounded by ghost towns.
• 46.320278-111.5177788 Townsend — small town on the Canyon Ferry Reservoir.
• 45.2942-111.9419 Virginia City — the old capital city preserved as a Wild West town, and the backdrop for a number of movies.
• 47.006111-112.06916710 Wolf Creek — tiny town located in the Gates of the Mountains, one of the most spectacular canyons in Montana.

Interstate 90 connects Billings with Bozeman, Livingston, Butte, Missoula and Idaho.

Interstate 15 connects Idaho Falls to Dillon, Butte, Helena and Great Falls.

It's almost impossible to find an area that does not provide breathtaking views of staggering natural beauty, so there is no reason to be in a hurry.

The Continental Divide Trail is a National Scenic Trail running 3,100 miles between Mexico and Canada. It follows the Continental Divide of the Americas along the Rocky Mountains through Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico.

The commercial airports are Bert Mooney Airport (Butte) (BTM ^IATA) and Helena Regional Airport (HLN ^IATA).

Like the rest of Montana, this region is vast with gas stations sometimes great distances apart, so plan accordingly.

Montana's gold country has many small historic towns that look like they are straight off of a western movie set. A few of them have actually been western movie sets! The gold and silver rushes of the late 1800s left this region teeming with rough-and-tumble Old West streets and forlorn ghost towns. The neighboring Virginia City and Nevada City are the showcases, restored for easy and informative exploration.

Even for the northern Rockies, this region is a hub for mining tourism. At the very least, Butte's massive Berkeley Pit is hard to miss and is sure to leave an impression.

Helena and Butte were both major cities with tremendous wealth during their heydays. This is easy to see in the turn-of-the-century architecture near their historic cores, Last Chance Gulch and Uptown Butte.

Lewis and Clark Caverns State Park is on MT-2 between Whitehall and Three Forks. Tours operates from May through September, and there are trails and camping as well.

This area offers a wide variety of open spaces and protected lands to explore.

• Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest
• Gates of the Mountains Wilderness Area between Helena and Wolf Creek.
• Scapegoat Wilderness Area

• Canyon Ferry Lake near Townsend
• Georgetown Lake near Philipsburg

• Discovery Ski Area near Philipsburg
• Great Divide near Helena
• Maverick Mountain Ski Area near Dillon

Winter driving is challenging here. Smaller secondary roads are often closed entirely, and even the interstates can shut down rapidly when the weather turns poor. Verify weather conditions and road status with the Montana Department of Transportation before setting out, and travel with emergency supplies. Unpaved roads are typically impassable for over half the year.

Be watchful of wildlife on the roadways, especially at dusk and night time when they are hardest to see.

• Central Montana
• Northwestern Montana
• Yellowstone Country
• Eastern Idaho