Montana
Montana RV Travel Destinations
Whenever we travel the western U.S. in our RV, Montana is always a must visit state for us. Montana is home to the following areas managed by the National Park Service:
- Big Hole National Battlefield, Wisdom, MT
- Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area, Fort Smith, MT,WY
- Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site, Two States: MT,ND
- Glacier National Park, Northwest Montana, MT
- Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site, Deer Lodge, MT
- Lewis & Clark National Historic Trail, Eleven States: ID,IL,IA,KS,MO,MT,NE,ND,OR,SD,WA
- Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, Crow Agency, MT
- Nez Perce National Historical Park, four states, ID, MT, OR, WA
- Yellowstone National Park, Yellowstone National Park, ID, MT, WY
Below we have provided some of the areas we visited which we enjoyed. We have also included, if applicable, our recommended RV parks and any restaurants we particularly liked in these areas. As RV parks, attractions and restaurants can change owners and/or management, we cannot guarantee the same level of food/service/accommodations we experienced so please check current reviews and recommendations. Business reviews can usually be found by searching the business name on the internet (Google is our friend!)
Big Horn County Museum Hardin, MT [Garryowen, MT] – This is a fabulous 22 acre museum in Hardin whose focus is old buildings you can tour and farm equipment. Some of the buildings include a one room school house, a German Church, buildings relocated from an old wheat camp, gas station and store, doctor’s office, railroad depot, Camp Custer Motel and more.
Deer Lodge, MT – You will definitely get your money’s worth when you buy the combo ticket to see the museums in Deer Lodge, Montana. The highlight for us was touring the Old Montana Prison.
Dillon, MT – We used this small quaint town with some beautiful Victorian houses as our base camp. Visit the Beaverhead County Museum . In addition to the many historical artifacts, we found the unique part of the museum to be the bird exhibit. A local taxidermist spent approximately 10 years working on this exhibit. Each pair of bird species is portrayed in a small unique setting. A pair of birds on a nest with a small snake entering the nest, another pair of birds eating strawberries, etc. In July, the town sponsors provide a free concert in the park. The entertainers we saw were not local talent but were from the east coast. One group was on its way to play at the Folk Festival in Butte.
√ Recommended RV Park: Southside RV Park. We loved this park! Owned by the Gore family, their pride in the RV park is evident everywhere. Janet is the “Hostess With The Mostest”. At the time of our visit, they had Moozy the cow and about a half dozen sheep. When there are children in the park, Janet will put a halter lead on one of the younger sheep and walk it around the park for the kids to pet and have their picture taken with him. She is such a delight!! We had one of the larger pull-through spots on the back side of the park right across from the Blacktail Creek which runs through the park.
√ Recommended Restaurants – Pappa T’s – Try the Philly Cheese Steak Sandwich or the pork chop sandwich and cottage fries (homemade potato chips). This restaurant also has electronic games so there can be lots of kids. Sparky’s Garage has great food with old gasoline station memorabilia – the shrimp scampi was awesome!
Garryowen, MT – Garryowen was our home base for a week as we visited Hardin, MT for the Custer’s Last Stand Re-enactments. One is performed by the Real Bird Indian family with the Indian interpretation of the events and the other is more of an interpretation from the white man’s perspective. These re-enactments are performed in June and well worth attending. Garryowen is a very small community. There is a small museum we enjoyed. Be sure to watch the video which chronicles the supposed controversy of General George Custer and his officers and how it possibly let to Custer’s defeat at the Battle of Little Big Horn.
√ Recommended RV Park: 7th Ranch RV Camp is a horse ranch that has been partially turned into a large RV park. This is a nice park that is easy to maneuver in even in a big rig. They give you a free ice cream upon check-in. The closest town with a grocery store is Hardin about 20 miles from Garryowen but there is a convenience store in Garryowen if you need a few basic supplies like milk or bread. If you get a site close to the pasture, you will see the horses roaming around in the afternoon.
Gem Mountain Sapphire Mine, Outside of Philipsburg MT – We had a full day of fun mining for sapphires at Gem Mountain. A word of caution on getting there – they are between Hamilton and Philipsburg and they are not allowed to put up directional signs. They are a little hard to find but worth the effort!
Little Big Horn Battlefield National Monument, Crow Agency, MT [Garryowen, MT] – This national monument area memorializes the battle between General George A. Custer and his troops and the Lakota and Cheyenne Indians. It is in this area that General Custer was killed in battle.
Livingston, MT – We have stayed outside of Livingston twice to tour Yellowstone National Park and the surrounding area.
√ Recommend RV Park: Yellowstone’s Edge RV Park: This has been my favorite RV park so far. The park sits on the Yellowstone River with spectacular mountain views. It is approximately 30 to 35 miles from the Yellowstone National Park entrance but when you return to the park you are rewarded with wonderful views. Try to get one of the spots backing to the Yellowstone River or one of the spots close to the river for the best views.
√ Recommended Restaurant: Montana’s Rib and Chop House in Downtown Livingston and Chico Hot Springs Resort which is a few miles from Yellowstone’s Edge RV Park.
Missoula, MT – This was an overnight stay but the RV Park, Jim and Mary’s RV Park, was such a gem, I wanted to mention it. If you stay in the summer, there are beautiful flowers everywhere. The park is heavily treed but we did not have any problems getting our 40 foot motorhome with Tahoe toad into the spacious pull through spot.
Virginia City and Nevada City, MT – [Dillon, MT] Even though Virginia City is better known, we really enjoyed Nevada City. Nevada City is a collection of many historical buildings and houses. The Nevada City Music Hall houses the largest public collection of automated music machines in North America. Some weekends they have re-enactors in period dress that you can interact with. The emphasis of Nevada City is to recreate accurate history of the old west in this town; therefore, there are no shootouts as they say shootouts were not common as portrayed in the western movies and TV shows. They have a beautifully restored steam engine which runs on the weekend between Virginia City and Nevada City. The steam engine was out of service when we arrived in the summer of 2009 so I would call ahead of time if you have your heart set on the steam engine.
√ Recommended Restaurant: Star Bakery Restaurant is located in one of the historical buildings in Nevada City. We enjoyed our lunch so much, we returned on another day to enjoy another meal after mining for garnets nearby.
We hope our RV trips to Montana and subsequent recommendations help in planning your trip. You may find some of our recommended destinations little gems that you would not have thought to visit.
Check back with us at love-to-rv.com as we continue our RV travels for more recommendations and as I go back into my travel journals and document past RV trips.
