Best Montana Sites to Visit Before or After a Canoe Trip
You are traveling to Montana (maybe for the first time), you have booked a multi-day canoe and camping trip with us (hopefully :-), and you are thinking, ‘Well, I am coming all that way, I should probably take a few extra days to explore more of this vast state.’ You nailed it! We love this great state and know there are so, so many places to visit and sites to see and understand the distance between them can be formidable. Thus, we have complied a (very) short list of other recommended places to visit to either compliment your experience on one of our luxury guided canoe & camping trips or offer a contrasting adventure that gives you a multifaceted experience. Again, this list is very far from being exhaustive, but we will continue to add to this page.
Need help planning you trip out here? Check out our Planning Your Trip page for more information on lodging and travel to our area.
I only have a day on either side of my canoe trip.
No problem, you can fill your days with worthwhile museums and/or days trips within a few hours of Fort Benton.
If nothing else, we recommend you take a stroll through the past along the riverfront walking path. Fort Benton is unique in that there are virtually no buildings actually on the waterfront. Thus, one can meander peacefully on a paved path with the quaint building of downtown Fort Benton on one side and the magnificent river on the other. If you aren’t staying at the Grand Union Hotel, we recommend you stop in or have a drink or dinner. Generally, we simply recommend you take the time to visit shops, restaurants and other establishments and chat with the locals. We absolutely love the people of Fort Benton - they are our river family - and they make this place special!
Fort Benton boasts several wonderful museums and interpretive centers. Click here for more information.
Historic Old Fort Benton - Tour the fort which is packed to the brim with period furnishings, buffalo robes, beads, trinkets, blankets and other period trade goods. There is also a large collection of fur trade era items and also displays a blacksmith & carpenters shop.
The Museum of the Northern Great Plains - This fabulous collection displays the past one hundred years of life through the Montana plains focusing on stories of homesteaders and more.
Homestead Village - Located adjacent to the Museum of the Northern Great Plains, this display offers a chance to visualize a typical rural community set in the early 1900’s
The Museum of the Upper Missouri - Take a voyage into the past and through the history of the Upper Missouri River and Fort Benton. Dive into how Fort Benton became a fur trade post and lawless river port.
Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument Interpretive Center - This center offers natural and cultural history of the National Monument, wildlife on the river and more.
The Starr Gallery of Western Art - Located in the Council Room of the newly construction Bourgeois House, this gallery features Montana sculptor Bob Scriver’s More Buffalo Collection along with rare Karl Bodmer prints.
“It was at the Marias River that, as one historian so aptly put it, Lewis and Clark entered the “where the hell are we” phase of their expedition.”
After you visit these wonderful museums, take a quick drive to Decision Point just outside of Loma, which is about a 15 minute drive Northeast of Fort Benton on Highway 87. Decision Point is the confluence of the Marias and Missouri Rivers. Here, the Lewis and Clark Expedition debated on which river corridor was actually the main branch of the Missouri River.
In 1831, the first trading post on the Missouri River above Fort Union, called Ft. Piegan, was located here.
Learn more and retrace the history as you float the river with our history digest and guidebook: Montana’s Wild and Scenic Upper Missouri River. Click here to purchase.
I have a few days before and/or after my canoe trip, and I have transportation!
Perfect! Again, our great state is vast, but you can see some great sites within just a few hours of Fort Benton.
First, we recommend you take some time in Great Falls. You can quickly stop at the actual Great Falls. Unfortunately, there is a damn obstructing most of the feature, but you can still get a sense of their magnitude and what the Expedition may have felt when they finally reached this immeasurable impediment to their upriver travel. You could take a short drive and visit the Giant Spring State Park just outside of Great Falls, which is one of the largest freshwater springs in the country.
The two most famous and worthwhile museums are the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center and the Charles M. Russel Museum.
Next, we highly recommend you plan to drive towards Helena, Montana, the capital. You essentially drive along the Missouri River and the landscape is breathtaking, especially as you enter the canyon section near Craig and Wolf Creek.
You have a few options here. You can take an amazing motorized boat tour with Gates of the Mountain boat tours. This part of the Missouri River is a reservoir created by the Holter Dam. This narrow canyon is magical, and the tour is incredibly informative. If you are into fishing, the section just below the dam is one of the most famous trout fishing river sections in the state, aptly dubbed, ‘Land of the Giants.’ There are a number of companies offering watercraft rentals, then you can hire a shuttle service and do a self-guided float. If you are interested in a guided fishing excursion, we highly recommend our dear friend and talented fisherwoman, Shalon Hasting of FlyFisHer Adventures.
If you make it all the way to Helena to stay for a night or two, please let us know, and we can give you recommendations, as we reside in Helena during the offseason :-)
Finally, just over an hour past Helena, you can visit the Missouri River Headwaters State Park in Three Forks, Montana. See where the river originates, the confluence of three rivers, and imagine this same water traveling across most of the country and eventually spilling out into the gulf.
Alright, I have a week or two to explore Montana after the trip and can’t wait to see more!
Excellent. But, this is a tough one. What to choose?! Again, there is a lot of options. We can help if you find yourself trying to choose between it all.
The heavy hitters are obviously the two renowned national parks: Yellowstone National Park and Glacier National Park. We will not go into too many details here because, again, there is just simply too much to cover here.
We will offer you references to our friends who also own guide businesses in the areas of these national parks. They are great resources and offer unparalleled and unique guide services.
View from the Yellowstone River through Paradise Valley
Yellowstone National Park and Surrounding Area
Cara McGary, owner of In Our Nature Guiding Services offers an array of private wildlife watching and hiking tours in Yellowstone National Park and the surrounding area.
Craving more river time? We understand! The Yellowstone River just outside of the North Entrance to Yellowstone Park from Gardiner to Livingston through Paradise Valley is one of the most majestic and scenic sections of river in our great state. (Haley is also very biased because she was born and raised on this river, but trust her, she is not wrong!) If you are interested in casting a few lines or just enjoying the absolute tranquility of this river, make it easy with a guided day trip. Our dear friends Matt and LaRue Detori own and operate Sleeping Giant River Guides, offering wonderful day trips or overnight trips on a raft or try your hand at an inflatable kayak.
Glacier National Park
This magnificent and vast park will surely take your breath away. You will hardly believe you are still in Montana. It offers a stark contrast to the rolling prairie landscape of Central Montana. This park has been deemed to more of an active park and the hiking opportunities are endless and vary in degree of difficulty.
A good place to start would to contacting our friends at Glacier Adventure Guides. They offer year round guide services and are experts on adventure in the entire area!
Bob Marshal Wilderness
A lesser known but absolutely stunning area of Montana, the Bob Marshall Wilderness is big and understated. The hiking opportunities are endless! Or, you could try something totally different but VERY Montana-themed, and embark on a stock-supported adventure! We recommend you chat with the amazing woman-owned Dropstone Outfitting. This will definitely be one to write home about!
We can’t stress enough that the above recommendations are just the tip of the iceberg. But, we do love helping folks plan Montana trips. Please do not hesitate to reach out to us for more, or we will direct you to our friends around the state that can help you plan your most ideal Montana vacation!