Overview
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.
Updated from Wikivoyage on 1 October 2026 · Something wrong or missing? Improve it on Wikivoyage
Plan your trip
Best time to visit & weather
Most comfortable: May–Sep. Summer highs reach about 82°F; winter lows dip to about 14°F. Cold months (Jan, Feb, Dec) can bring snow and ice; check road conditions. Wettest: Jun and May. (climate data from nearby Bozeman)
Blue bars: average daily high and low (°F). Purple columns: average monthly rain and melted snow (inches).
Getting there
- From you: to see whether to drive or fly, and how long it takes.
- BTM Bert Mooney Airport, Butte — 13 mi away. Directions
- HLN Helena Regional Airport, Helena — 38 mi away. Directions
- BOI Boise Air Terminal/Gowen Field, Boise — 258 mi away (major hub). Directions
Interstate 90 connects Billings with Bozeman, Livingston, Butte, Missoula and Idaho.
Full “Get in” guide ↓Sample 3-day trip
- Day 1: Butte — Berkeley Pit, Granite Mountain Speculator Mine Memorial, Copper King Mansion.
- Day 2: Helena — Cathedral of St. Helena, Montana State Capitol, Great Divide Snow Sports.
- Day 3: Dillon — Bannack State Park, Beaverhead Rock State Park, Clark Canyon Reservoir.
Built from the best-covered destinations in this region; open each for its own day plan.
Photos
Places in Southwest Montana
Butte
City / town · 54 listings
Helena
City / town · 41 listings
Dillon
City / town · 25 listings
Anaconda
City / town · 20 listings
Deer Lodge
City / town · 20 listings
Wolf Creek
City / town · 9 listings
Townsend
City / town · 8 listings
Virginia City
City / town · 7 listings
Philipsburg
City / town · 7 listings
Nevada City
City / town · 3 listings
Cities
- Helena — the state capital, where the gold rush created more millionaires per capita than anywhere else in the world.
- Anaconda — known for its giant smoke stack.
- Butte — the "Richest Hill on Earth" from its massive copper mining operations, once the largest city between Chicago and Seattle.
- Deer Lodge — small town, long-time home of the state prison, now converted into a collection of museums.
- Dillon — Small rural town.
- Nevada City — a ghost town made into an open-air museum.
- Philipsburg — a charming mining community surrounded by ghost towns.
- Townsend — small town on the Canyon Ferry Reservoir.
- Virginia City — the old capital city preserved as a Wild West town, and the backdrop for a number of movies.
- Wolf Creek — tiny town located in the Gates of the Mountains, one of the most spectacular canyons in Montana.
Get in
By car
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.
By foot
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.
By plane
The commercial airports are Bert Mooney Airport (Butte) (BTM) and Helena Regional Airport (HLN).
Get around
By car
Like the rest of Montana, this region is vast with gas stations sometimes great distances apart, so plan accordingly.
See
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.
Do
Nature and wilderness
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
Lakes and water
- Canyon Ferry Lake near Townsend
- Georgetown Lake near Philipsburg
Winter sports
- Discovery Ski Area near Philipsburg
- Great Divide near Helena
- Maverick Mountain Ski Area near Dillon
Stay safe
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.
Go next
Nearby
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