Tag Archives: National Forest

itinerary, Mississippi

Mississippi Road Trip Itinerary

Leave a comment

30,030,893 acres

Statehood 1817 (20th)

Capital: Jackson

Population: 2,961,279 (34th)

High Point: Woodall Mountain (807 feet)

Best time of year: Spring

We recently published our guidebook 50 States of Great: Road Trip Guide to America, so we decided to start a new type of blog post where we create a travel itinerary for all 50 states, in addition to our usual National Forest and National Park entries.  After starting with Kansas, Georgia, Idaho, Rhode Island, Minnesota, Hawai’i, Arizona, Louisiana, South Dakota, Indiana, and Montana, we decided to do another state in the deep south.  We made an ambitious seven-day plan starting in the south on the Gulf Coast and then zigzagging across the state with plenty of options to extend the trip.

Day 1

Gulf Islands National Seashore (click here for our blog post)

You will have to take a ferry to enjoy the white sand beaches of West Ship Island, which are considered some of the best in the U.S.  If you are stuck on the mainland, at least check out the visitor center and hiking trails just off Interstate 10. 

Biloxi

Biloxi has beaches, a lighthouse, casinos, and the Maritime and Seafood Industry Museum.  I still want to see the Patriarch Oak, estimated to be more than 2,000 years old and located at Mary Mahoney’s Old French House seafood restaurant.

De Soto National Forest (click here for our blog post)

Tuxachanie National Recreation Trail runs 12 miles through De Soto National Forest with the path from its western trailhead following an old logging railroad right off Highway 49.  Near the far eastern end of the trail is a lakeside World War II Prisoner of War camp with a pond.

Optional stop at Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge

Some sandhill cranes migrate to this forested spot for the winter, but a small population lives there year-round.  There are trails, interpretive signs, and a visitor center.

Day 2

Natchez National Historical Park (click here for our blog post)

National Park Service (NPS) rangers or volunteers are on location at the William Johnson House, Melrose Estate, and the Forks of the Road where hundreds of thousands of slaves were sold in the 1800s.  The William Johnson House tells the story of a slave freed at age 11 who apprenticed to a barber, and became a successful businessman before his murder.

Grand Village of the Natchez Indians State Historic Site

These historic mounds offer a free museum and film inside an air-conditioned building (which is important on a muggy summer day). 

Optional stop at Homochitto National Forest (click here for our blog post)

There is a nice campground with showers on Clear Springs Lake, accessed by a paved road four miles south of Highway 84.  A one-mile trail circles the lake, which has a picnic shelter built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in 1935 that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Day 3

Natchez Trace Parkway (click here for our blog post)

This paved road runs 444 miles from the Mississippi River to Nashville, Tennessee, including 309 miles in Mississippi.  The trace (or trail) started as an American Indian footpath and was heavily used in the 1800s by “Kaintuck” flatboatmen returning from New Orleans who left the Mississippi River at Natchez and continued on foot north.  At several roadside pullouts, you can still follow portions of the “sunken” trail worn down by travelers over the centuries.  Popular stops along the way include the boardwalk at Cypress Swamp outside Jackson and its three free campgrounds.

Optional stop at Natchez Trace National Scenic Trail (click here for our blog post)

Paralleling the parkway, this trail exists in five segments totaling 67 miles in length.  One of the longest sections is located north of Jackson (Miles 108-130).  There are also eight miles of the original trace around the free Rocky Springs Campground (Mile 58) accessing Owens Creek Waterfall and a historic town site.

Day 4

Jackson

The capital city is home to the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum, Museum of Mississippi History, and Mississippi Agriculture and Forestry Museum.  The Mississippi Museum of Natural Science is a 73,000-square-foot facility situated in a 300-acre forest with 2.5 miles of trails that also boasts a 200-seat theater and many aquariums, including “The Swamp” where alligators reside inside a large greenhouse. 

Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument (click here for our blog post)

In Jackson, the National Park Service manages the former home of a prominent Civil Rights Leader who was assassinated in his driveway in 1963.  Across the street, there is a sidewalk through Myrlie’s Garden, a community garden where interpretive signs on the wooden fence tell the story of the Evers family.

Optional stop at Bienville National Forest (click here for our blog post)

There are several lakes here open to the public, including 50-acre Marathon Lake (which got its name a lumber company that closed in 1929).  The lake was built in the 1950s for recreation in a former logging camp and now has 34 campsites (with water and electric hook-ups), a boat ramp, a swimming area, and a 1.7-mile trail that circles it. 

Day 5

Vicksburg National Military Park (click here for our blog post)

The numerous failed attempts to take Vicksburg by force are evidenced by the 17,000 soldiers buried in the National Cemetery here.  Following a 46-day bombardment, the city finally surrendered on July 4, 1863.  The best part of visiting the park is walking through the partially-reconstructed U.S.S. Cairo, an ironclad gunboat which was carefully salvaged from the Yazoo River during the 1960s.

Optional stop at Delta National Forest (click here for our blog post)

Delta National Forest is seasonally flooded for wildlife, but it was dry enough to walk up to the Kay Cypress Tree even when other trails were underwater during our April visit.  The tree is more than ten feet in diameter even above the widely fluted base common to baldcypress.  It is located across from Blue Lake on unpaved Fire Tower Road.

Day 6

Emmett Till Historic Intrepid Center (ETHIC)

Located in a former cotton gin near the site of Emmett Till’s torture and murder on the farm of “J.W.” Milam in Glendora.  Established in 2005, there is an atmosphere to the museum that bears the full weight of history, heightened by the short introductory video showing Emmett Till’s family members’ recollections of the events of 1955. 

Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument (click here for our blog post)

The National Park Service operates out of the Emmett Till Interpretive Center, located in a strip mall opposite the Tallahatchie County Second District Courthouse in Sumner.  It has limited hours, but the courtroom where the September 1955 trial was held was unlocked when we visited on a Tuesday morning.

Optional stop at a Blues Museum

The Yazoo-Mississippi Delta (or simply “the Delta”) is a distinct section of western Mississippi renowned for its blues musicians.  There is plenty to learn and listen to at the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale, GRAMMY Museum Mississippi in Cleveland, and B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center in Indianola.  Spend the night in the area to go to a bar for live music in the evening. 

Optional stop at Belzoni Catfish Museum and Welcome Center

At its peak in 1993, this region produced 461-million pounds of catfish annually (about 60% of U.S. production) and still hosts the World Catfish Festival every April.  The best part is that Belzoni has catfish sculptures spread around town, painted to represent different occupations like a fireman and nurse. 

Day 7

Brices Cross Roads National Battlefield Site (click here for our blog post)

The National Park Service site here is tiny with no facilities and only a couple interpretive signs, but a local battlefield commission owns 1,400 acres with walking trails.  The nearby Mississippi Final Stands Interpretive Center is located five miles east of the battlefield in Baldwyn. 

Tupelo National Battlefield (click here for our blog post)

Two cannons and a monument mark this one-acre National Park Service site surrounded by the city of Tupelo.  Its visitor center is combined with the one for the Natchez Trace Parkway just outside Tupelo.

Optional stop at Elvis Pressley Birthplace and Museum

In Tupelo, the house where Elvis grew up is a main attraction.  The grounds are open 24 hours and the museum is open seven days a week. 

Optional stop at Tishomingo State Park

Tishomingo State Park is located just off the Natchez Trace Parkway (Milepost 304) northeast of Tupelo.  The park’s sandstone and limestone rock formations represent the furthest southwest extent of the Appalachian Plateau.  The park opened in 1939, after its infrastructure was built using local rock by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC).  Several structures remain from that period, including a spectacular swinging bridge over Bear Creek.

Day 8+

Holly Springs National Forest (click here for our blog post)

Chewalla Lake Recreation Area is the most developed site offering a swimming beach and campground, plus fishing and boating opportunities.  A 2.3-mile trail at the 260-acre lake passes an overlook and a reconstructed Choctaw burial mound.  In the northeast corner off Highway 72, a short trail accesses Baker’s Pond, the source of the Wolf River.  Further south, Lake Tillatoba is a fee-free primitive site managed by Tombigbee National Forest.

Shiloh National Military Park (click here for our blog post)

An important railroad crossroads in Corinth made it a strategic spot during the Civil War.  In April 1862, two days of intense fighting across the border in Tennessee resulted in 23,746 soldiers killed, wounded, captured, or missing, and the Confederates abandoned the field and Corinth.  There were an additional 7,000 casualties when they failed to recapture the town in October 1862, which is the focus of the museums in town.

Apron Museum

Iuka is home to the Apron Museum that has collected thousands of vintage aprons, plus it has a gift shop with quilts, crafts, and, of course, aprons for sale.  Nearby, a restored wooden covered bridge is also worth a look-see and a drive across.

Learn more about Mississippi’s Most Scenic Drive, Wonderful Waterfall, Top State Park, and other categories in our travel guidebook 50 States of Great: Road Trip Guide to America.

Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee

Natchez Trace Parkway

2 Comments

Natchez Trace Parkway

Mississippi-Alabama-Tennessee

Managed by National Park Service

Established 1938

52,302 acres

Website: nps.gov/natr

Overview

The Natonal Park Service (NPS) administers the Natchez Trace Parkway, a two-lane All-American Road that extends 444 miles from Natchez, Mississippi to Nashville, Tennessee.  The trace started as a game trail that was utilized as an American Indian footpath.  Some of the mound builder sites protected here were inhabited when Hernando de Soto led the first Europeans into this area in 1540.  The Natchez Trace was heavily used in the 1800s by “Kaintuck” flatboatmen returning from New Orleans who left the Mississippi River from Natchez, Mississippi and continued on foot north to Kentucky and beyond.  Today you can still follow portions of the sunken trail worn down by travelers for centuries.  The parkway began as a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) project during the Great Depression and the final two segments were completed in 2005.

Highlights

Rocky Springs, Owens Creek Waterfall, Emerald Mound, Mount Locust, Chickasaw Village, Meriwether Lewis Monument and Gravesite, Cypress Swamp Walk, Witch Dance Horse Trail, Natchez Trace National Scenic Trail

Must-Do Activity

Near Tupelo, the Parkway Visitor Center at Milepost 266 is a must-do stop to learn the history of the trace, and it also serves as the NPS contact station for tiny Brices Cross Roads National Battlefield Site and Tupelo National Battlefield.  There are numerous roadside informational pullouts and trailheads along the route, so use the NPS app or pick up an official “unigrid” map.  You can easily spend days exploring, but at a minimum we recommend you check out Emerald Mound, Mount Locust, Cypress Swamp, and Meriwether Lewis Monument and Grave Site.

Best Trail

Our favorite trail is the Cypress Swamp Walk at Milepost 122, where a boardwalk crosses a scenic tupelo-baldcypress swamp.  The Natchez Trace National Scenic Trail (click here for our blog post) does not follow the entire 444-mile parkway, but exists in five segments totaling 67 miles in length.  There are also 15 miles of equestrian trails at Witch Dance (Milepost 233.2) in Tombigbee National Forest.

Photographic Opportunity

Not far from Natchez National Historical Park, Emerald Mound (a short detour at Milepost 10.3) is the second-largest American Indian ceremonial mound in the U.S.  It stands 35 feet tall and 770 by 435 feet at its base. 

Peak Season

Spring and fall

Hours

https://nps.gov/natr/planyourvisit/hours.htm

Fees

None

Road Conditions

The entire 444-mile Natchez Trace Parkway is paved from Natchez, Mississippi to Nashville, Tennessee with commercial traffic prohibited and a maximum speed limit of 50 miles per hour.  There is a detour from Milepost 181 to 204 due to ongoing construction.  Watch for bicycles and white-tailed deer on the road.

Camping

There are three free NPS campgrounds (at Milepost 54, 193.1, and 385.9) along the route, as well as those in sites like Mississippi’s Tishomingo State Park.  The three NPS campgrounds have water and bathrooms (but no RV hookups), plus there are also five bike-only campsites along the route.  Jeff Busby Campground closed in June 2025 for repairs.

Related Sites

Natchez National Historical Park (Mississippi)

Tupelo National Battlefield (Mississippi)

Brices Cross Roads National Battlefield Site (Mississippi)

Vicksburg National Military Park (Mississippi)

Nearest National Park

Hot Springs

Mount Locust
Rocky Springs Church
Grindstone Ford
Meriwether Lewis Monument
Cypress Swamp

Explore More – When were Ackia Battleground National Monument and Meriwether Lewis National Monument disbanded and added to the Natchez Trace Parkway?

California

Los Padres National Forest

2 Comments

Los Padres National Forest

California

Managed by U.S. Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Region

1,963,836 acres (1,762,767 federal/ 201,069 other)

Website: http://www.fs.usda.gov/r05/lospadres

Overview

Los Padres National Forest stretches more than 200 miles from Monterrey south beyond Santa Barbara.  It contains most of Big Sur, a name that conjures images of craggy cliffs dropping precipitously into white-capped ocean waves.  This sparsely inhabited stretch of coastline is known as much for its historic bohemians as its coast redwood trees.  It is home to multiple rare tree species with limited native ranges, especially those that can tolerate serpentine soils.  As the only National Forest in California that touches the Pacific Ocean, a road trip down scenic Highway 1 should be on everyone’s bucket list, including stops at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park, Bixby Creek Bridge, Hearst Castle State Park, and the elephant seal rookery at Piedras Blancas.  We have hiked many trails here since Scott taught for three years at Cal Poly State University in San Luis Obispo.

Highlights

Big Sur, Sykes Hot Springs, Salmon Creek Falls, Jade Cove, Cuesta Ridge Botanical Area, Figueroa Mountain, Mt. Pinos, Knapp’s Castle, Seven Falls, Sespe Hot Springs

Must-Do Activity

Los Padres National Forest is 48% designated Wilderness, so the recommended activity is to hike into those natural areas.  The Matilija Wilderness is in the Santa Ynez Mountains that loom above the coastal city of Santa Barbara, home to a university, art museum, and historic Presidio built in 1782.  If you go to hike to the ruins of Knapp’s Castle in the National Forest, also make a quick stop at Chumash Painted Cave State Historic Park, which contains colorful pictographs dating back to the 1600s.  Another popular U.S. Forest Service trailhead located closer to town goes either to Inspiration Point or Seven Falls, the latter a better choice on foggy days, which are common on the coast.

Best Trail

There are 323 miles of incredible hiking trails throughout Los Padres National Forest, including a few that access hot springs.  Our favorite trails are in the Santa Lucia Mountains that tower above Big Sur.  One pinnacle accessible by trail is Cone Peak at 5,155 feet in elevation.  The access road is typically closed in the winter, but when it is open the trail is only 2.3 miles to the summit with a vertical gain of 1,400 feet.  Do not expect any shade since multiple fires have burned most of the mountain, although there are still a few surviving examples of the rare Santa Lucia fir tree.  Although some areas are no longer vegetated, the plentiful sunshine above the fog belt means there are often incredible displays of wildflowers along the trail early in summer, including lupine, sticky monkeyflower, and yucca. 

Watchable Wildlife

There is a wide range of wildlife found here from sea level up to 8,847 feet in elevation, and the most famous is the reintroduced California condor that nests in the Sespe Condor Sanctuary.  Other birds include barn owls, great horned owls, red-tailed hawks, bald eagles, California quail, and California scrub jays.  Coyotes, black bears, bobcats, mountain lions, black-tailed deer, bighorn sheep, and raccoons are common large mammals.  Species of concern include the foothill yellow-legged frog and California mountain kingsnake.  Look for California newts and banana slugs in the moist understory of coast redwood forests.

Photographic Opportunity

Even if you are not spending the night at Kirk Creek Campground, you can park and walk down the trail to the south that goes past redwood trees to the beach where there is a sea arch and tidepools. 

Peak Season

Fall and winter

Fees

$5 per vehicle Adventure Pass (or America the Beautiful pass) required at most trailheads

Road Conditions

There are some steep unpaved roads in Los Padres National Forest, which can be impassable in wet or snowy conditions.  Portions of the unpaved Tassajara Road to Chews Ridge are narrow and steep, requiring a four-wheel-drive vehicle to reach Tassajara Hot Springs.

Camping

A night spent listening to the ocean waves breaking far below the U.S. Forest Service’s clifftop Kirk Creek Campground is enchanting, which is why it made it on our list of Top 10 Campgrounds in National Forests.  There are 11 campgrounds in total, and a free campfire permit is required if you use a camp stove (which can be obtained online). Sespe Hot Springs is a popular ten-mile one-way backpacking destination.

Wilderness Areas

Chumash Wilderness

Dick Smith Wilderness

Garcia Wilderness

Machesna Mountain Wilderness

Matilija Wilderness

San Rafael Wilderness

Santa Lucia Wilderness

Sespe Wilderness

Silver Peak Wilderness

Ventana Wilderness

Related Sites

Angeles National Forest (California)

Muir Woods National Monument (California)

Point Reyes National Seashore (California)

Channel Islands National Park (California)

Nearest National Park

Pinnacles

Scott’s mother and aunt in the redwood forest
Tiff hiking to Sespe Hot Springs
Sespe Hot Springs
Sticky monkeyflower
Scott backpacking to Sespe Hot Springs
Highway 1
Scott with a Santa Lucia fir
Scott with a coast redwood tree
Banana slug
California newt
Mt. Pinos
Kirk Creek Campground in Big Sur

Conifer Tree Species

coast redwood, Monterey pine, Coulter pine, gray pine, Jeffrey pine, ponderosa pine, limber pine, bigcone Douglas-fir, Sargent cypress, Monterey cypress, white fir, Santa Lucia fir

Flowering Tree Species

coast live oak, California black oak, tanoak, western redbud, Pacific madrone, manzanita

Explore More – What is the name of the nomadic group that lived in Big Sur dating back 5,500 years ago?

List

Top 10 National Monuments in National Forests

7 Comments

Only 16 of the 138 U.S. National Monuments are found in National Forests, and many of those are jointly administered with the Bureau of Land Management (the BLM ones will be covered in a future Top 10 List).  Moreover, ten of them are located in only two states (California and Colorado).  However, that does not mean they are not worth checking out.  We have visited 15 with the exception of Admiralty Island in Alaska (but did read Alone in the Fortress of the Bears by Bruce L. Nelson), so we have an educated opinion in our ranking.  Click here to see all our Top 10 Lists, including our Top 10 National Monuments Managed by the National Park Service.

Learn more about all the National Monuments in our new book Monumental America: Your Guide to All 138 National Monuments

10. Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains (California)

A gondola ride up into Mt. San Jacinto State Park is the easiest way to access these mountains south of Palm Springs where the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) runs

9. Camp Hale–Continental Divide (Colorado)

During World War II, the 10th Mountain Division trained in this section of the Rocky Mountains

8. Browns Canyon (Colorado)

The only legal way to access these lands is on a whitewater rafting trip

7. Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni–Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon (Arizona)

The second newest of these 16 National Monuments includes the pictographs in Snake Gulch, part of Kaibab National Forest

6. Chimney Rock (Colorado)

This hilltop pueblo in San Juan National Forest may have been an astronomical observatory used for ceremonial purposes

5. Bears Ears (Utah)

La Sal National Forest’s Dark Canyon Wilderness has natural arches and cliff dwellings, as does the BLM portion of this sprawling National Monument

4. Misty Fiords (Alaska)

The first National Monument in a National Forest was created in 1978 and is best explored by floatplane from Ketchikan

3. Mount St. Helens (Washington)

The forest is quickly recovering in this area devastated by the 1980 volcanic eruption

2. Newberry (Oregon)

Beautiful lakes, waterfalls, and volcanic features are protected within Deschutes National Forest

…and finally our #1 National Monument in a National Forest

1. Giant Sequoia (California)

Not as busy as Sequoia National Park, there are some impressive giant sequoia trees found here (including the Boole Tree, one of our favorites)

.

Honorable Mentions

Sand to Snow (California)

We are mostly familiar with the BLM part of this National Monument, but it stretches up into the San Gorgonio Wilderness of San Bernardino National Forest

San Gabriel Mountains (California)

Trails abound in the peaks that rise up to 10,068 feet above the Los Angeles metropolitan area

Berryessa Snow Mountain (California)

This portion of Mendocino National Forest is less than 100 miles from San Francisco

Admiralty Island (Alaska)

A large population of grizzly/brown bears occupies the Kootznoowoo Wilderness in Tongass National Forest 

Saint Francis Dam Disaster (California)

The site of this deadly dam failure is still under development within Angeles National Forest

Sáttítla Highlands (California)

The newest of these 16 National Monuments was created in 2025 from portions of Klamath, Modoc, and Shasta National Forests

Learn more about all the National Monuments in our book Monumental America: Your Guide to All 138 National Monuments

itinerary, Montana

Montana Road Trip Itinerary

1 Comment

93,149,312 acres

Statehood 1889 (41st)

Capital: Helena

Population: 1,084,225 (43rd)

High Point: Granite Peak (12,807 feet)

Best time of year: Summer

After we published our guidebook 50 States of Great: Road Trip Guide to America in 2023, we decided to start a new type of blog post where we create a travel itinerary for all 50 states, in addition to our usual public land entries.  After starting with Kansas, Georgia, Idaho, Rhode Island, Minnesota, Hawai’i, Arizona, Louisiana, South Dakota, and Indiana, we decided to head back west to Montana.  There are so many great trails in the state’s National Forests that we had a difficult time narrowing it down.  We made an ambitious seven-day plan starting in southeast Montana on Interstate 90, with enough options to easily extend the trip into three weeks or more.

Day 1

Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument (click here for our blog post)

The best time to visit the National Monument is around June 25, the anniversary of Custer’s Last Stand when a reenactment of the battle is held on private land bordering the National Park Service site.

Makoshika State Park

It is illegal to remove dinosaur fossils from these badlands, but there are many on display at the visitor center, in addition to nearby museums (plus reservations can be made to dig on private land).  The few campsites are in high demand to spend the night in these colorful canyons where caprocks rise high above juniper trees. 

Optional stop at Pompeys Pillar National Monument

A sandstone monolith on the Yellowstone River has been a place for humans to record their passing for 11,000 years.  The most famous inscription was left by Captain William Clark on July 25, 1806, the sole on-site evidence of the Corps of Discovery’s three-year journey.

Optional stop at Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area (click here for our blog post)

This underappreciated gem in the National Park Service system features gorgeous scenery and abundant wildlife, including bighorn sheep and wild horses.  The highlight is across the state line in Wyoming where Devil Canyon Overlook sits atop cliffs that drop over 1,000 feet straight down to the level of the narrow reservoir. 

Day 2

Gallatin National Forest (click here for our blog post)

Gallatin Petrified Forest is only accessible by trail, either from a short two-mile one-way jaunt or by backpacking the 27-mile Gallatin Divide-Devils Backbone Trail.  Earthquake Lake Geologic Area stretches along Highway 287 to commemorate the events that occurred around midnight on August 17, 1959, when a deadly magnitude 7.5 earthquake hit West Yellowstone.

Custer National Forest (click here for our blog post)

Some of the National Forest’s miles of hiking trails access the Crazy Mountains and Hellroaring Plateau.  The two-mile Glacier Lake Trail steadily climbs 1,100 feet then drops into a bowl containing a stunning reservoir that straddles the Wyoming-Montana border.

Optional drive on Beartooth All-American Road

Custer National Forest is famous for its stretch of Highway 212 that climbs from the prairie around the town of Red Lodge up to 10,947 feet at Beartooth Pass across the Wyoming border in Shoshone National Forest.  The road follows the southern border of the giant 943,626-acre Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness, which contains the highest point in Montana.

Optional stop at Yellowstone National Park (click here for our blog post)

Located mostly in Wyoming and partly in Montana and Idaho, you could easily spend an entire summer in the world’s first National Park and not see all the thermal features, lakes, waterfalls, wildlife, and hiking trails.

Day 3

Lewis & Clark Caverns State Park

Once a U.S. National Monument, the state now runs a campground here and offers guided tours through a limestone show cave where bats live in the summer.

Beaverhead National Forest (click here for our blog post)

The free Potosi Campground is situated near the trailhead for Upper Potosi Hot Springs where a 0.8-mile trail leads past the uphill side of a clear 100°F pool with room for about six adults.

Optional stop at Chico Hot Springs

If you leave Yellowstone National Park north through Gardiner on Highway 89, consider stopping at this developed hot springs (fee) that offers live music poolside on some nights (especially if the park’s Boiling River was closed).  In business since 1897, even Teddy Roosevelt stopped to rest here.

Day 4

Bannack State Park

East of Lemhi Pass on the Idaho border (which is also the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail through there), Bannack State Park preserves more than 50 buildings from a gold rush town that was the territorial capital in 1864. 

Big Hole National Battlefield (click here for our blog post)

The site of a surprise attack by the U.S. Army on the morning of August 9, 1877, where Nez Perce warriors forced the troops to retreat, capturing a Howitzer cannon and allowing women and children to escape toward the newly created Yellowstone National Park.  Part of the widespread Nez Perce National Historical Park, a small visitor center here overlooks the battlefield and a paved road accesses trails through it.

Bitterroot National Forest (click here for our blog post)

Blodgett Creek Trail leads 12.6 miles one-way to Blodgett Lake, but you do not have to go that far to appreciate its incredible beauty. 

Optional stop at Elkhorn Hot Springs

In the Pioneer Mountains, about ten miles north of Highway 278 is the privately owned Elkhorn Hot Springs (fee), a great place to relax after hiking.  There is free dispersed camping to the north in Beaverhead National Forest.

Day 5

Travelers’ Rest State Park

Follow in the footsteps of the Lewis and Clark expedition by driving the Lolo Trail (Highway 12), soaking at Lolo Hot Springs, or walking around Travelers’ Rest State Park (still a great place to camp). 

Missoula

Do as the University of Montana students do and float tubes down the Clark Fork River through town.  In the summer, look for webcam-famous Iris the Osprey in the parking lot near the football stadium.  The Historical Museum at Fort Missoula preserves buildings dating back to 1877, including an Alien Detention Center used during World War II.

Lolo National Forest (click here for our blog post)

Outside Missoula, there are many trails in Rattlesnake National Recreation Area and Blue Mountain Recreation Area, plus the Aerial Fire Depot and Smokejumper Center, Ninemile Historic Remount Depot, and Savenac Historic Tree Nursery Area.

Optional stop at Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site (click here for our blog post)

This working ranch commemorates the nineteenth-century lifestyle of cattle barons and cowboys.  Free guided tours are offered inside the large ranch house, and a self-guided walking tour enters 15 buildings with displays on the history of barbwire, branding irons, and much more. 

Day 6

National Bison Range

Established in 1908 under President Theodore Roosevelt and now run by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes.  Start at the visitor center, then take the 19-mile Red Sleep Mountain Drive to see mule deer, white-tailed deer, elk, pronghorns, bighorn sheep, and the namesake bison. 

Flathead National Forest (click here for our blog post)

Jewel Basin Hiking Area is famous among backpackers, and further south so is Holland Lake, which has several campgrounds.  The steep Holland-Gordon Trail passes Holland Falls as it climbs 2,100 feet in 5.8 miles to Upper Holland Lake and continues into “the Bob” (Bob Marshall Wilderness).  Flathead National Forest contains more than 2,800 miles of hiking trails, including 38 miles of the Pacific Northwest National Scenic Trail and a stretch of the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail.

Optional stop at Mission Mountains Wilderness

Located within Flathead National Forest, a popular trail accesses multiple mountain lakes; it is only 1.5 miles one-way to Glacier Lake, but we recommend continuing to Turquoise Lake.  It borders the Mission Mountains Tribal Wilderness (permits required). 

Day 7

Glacier National Park (click here for our blog post)

Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park’s renowned Going-to-the-Sun Road was built to cross the park from east to west in the 1920s (reservations are required to drive it between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m. in the summer).  At its highest point at 6,646-foot Logan Pass, the road crosses the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail.

Optional stop at Kootenai National Forest (click here for our blog post)

In the state’s northwest corner, incredible views await at Blue Mountain Trail, Skyline National Recreation Trail, Scenery Mountain Lookout Trail, Ross Creek Scenic Area of old-growth western redcedar trees, and Kootenai Falls (located in a county park on the side of Highway 2).

Day 8+

Helena National Forest (click here for our blog post)

Meriwether Lewis named the Gates of the Mountains on July 19, 1805, and today a two-hour jet boat tour on the Missouri River provides history on the Corps of Discovery, American Indian pictographs, the Mann Gulch Fire, and the collapse of Hauser Dam.  A trail through Refrigerator Canyon is less than ten feet wide at its narrowest point, where towering 200-foot limestone cliffs keep it cool and breezy throughout the summer. 

Great Falls

North of Helena on Interstate 15 is the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center (fee), which is managed by the U.S. Forest Service on the banks of the Missouri River.

Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument (click here for our blog post)

This 375,000-acre National Monument preserves a stretch of the Missouri River that still looks much the way it did when Lewis and Clark explored it.  Start your journey by paying for permits at the Bureau of Land Management interpretive center in historic Fort Benton, where you can launch your canoe or kayak to access 149 miles of the river.  There are developed boat camps with vault toilets along the route, or you can pick your own spot near one of the Corps of Discovery campsite markers.

Deerlodge National Forest (click here for our blog post)

It includes portions of the Boulder Mountains, Flint Creek Range, and Elkhorn Mountains, as well as part of the Anaconda-Pintler Wilderness.  Our favorite hike is Haystack Mountain National Recreation Trail off Interstate 15, where a climb of 2,000 feet ends at a mountaintop boulder field with panoramic views and the remnants of a fire lookout tower.

Lewis & Clark National Forest (click here for our blog post)

Backpacking is a major draw with trails in the Snowy Mountain Range and parts of the Scapegoat and Bob Marshall Wilderness areas, which provide crucial habitat for grizzly bears.  It encompasses one of the most famous formations along the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail, the 15-mile long Chinese Wall (a 1,000-foot-tall cliff composed of five-million-year-old limestone). 

Learn more about Montana’s Most Scenic Drive, Wonderful Waterfall, Top State Park, and other categories in our travel guidebook 50 States of Great: Road Trip Guide to America.