Planning
Good preparation can turn an otherwise miserable misadventure into the best day of your life. With maps, guidebooks, and current conditions, we'll help you plan your next trip.
In the last five years, three people have been killed by grizzly bears in Yellowstone National Park. Read more >>
The river to wadeNestled in the Gravelly and Ruby Mountains outside Alder, the Ruby River flows from Ruby Reservoir. Narrower than most of the major rivers in southwest Montana, the Ruby offers unique and rewarding fishing. Read more >>
Tired of endless Google searches, sifting through irrelevant and useless results? We've compiled thorough, applicable lists of local outfitters, shops, clubs, and other resources – everything you need, nothing you don't – so you can do less planning and more playing. Read more >>
Directories
We try to keep this last best place a secret, but if you want some of what we've got, then here are Read more >>Reports & Conditions
The Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks website has up-to-date information on wildlife populations, hunter success rates, and predictions for next year's hunting seasons. Read more >>
What's the weather like today? Wait, it'll change any second. You can wear layers or just check this page often. Read more >>Guides & Outfitters
The last time I floated down the Madison, I was waist-deep in water, scuffing along the bottom in an underinflated, sinking kiddy pool. I had on far too little clothing given the circumstances and with both hands full of beer; navigation of such a vessel was simply out of the question. Read more >>
During hunting season in the backwoods of Montana, it’s not all that rare to run into a chick with a gun, or a bow for that matter. Plenty of female hunters stock the freezer, sometimes during years when their husbands come home empty-handed. Read more >>They're handy for breaking into a new sport, even handier for learning more about the ones you love, and southwestern Montucky is crawling with them. They're guides, and they're ready to fix you up with the gear and know-how to try something new somewhere new. Read more >>It’s a bright summer morning as my wife Mary Pat and I drive east on I-90 toward Big Timber. Just outside Livingston we watch a man on horseback move cattle across a sprawling pasture, and we suddenly realize it’s been quite a while since either one of us has ridden a horse. Read more >>Weather
Every so often, a blue light flashes on top of the Baxter Hotel, alerting anyone within view of the tallest building in Bozeman that snow is falling at Bridger Bowl. Read more >>What's the weather like today? Wait, it'll change any second. You can wear layers or just check this page often. Read more >>Maps
Given the mountains all around Bozeman, how often do you make the drive to Yellowstone for a day-hike? Read more >>
Instrumental to a successful outing on the Jefferson—be it a lazy, half-day float or an overnight adventure—are Thomas Elpel’s new Jefferson River Canoe Trail maps. Read more >>
Smartphone apps and GPS devices may be all the rage, but nothing will ever replace the classic topographic map. It doesn’t need batteries or cell service, requires no updates (mountains don’t move much), is inexpensive and replaceable, and can be opened wide for a bird’s-eye view of the terrain. Read more >>Guidebooks
Tired of hiking the same old circuit of trails around Bozeman? Check out the new edition of Robert Stone’s Day Hikes Around Bozeman (Day Hike Books, $16) for plenty of beautiful hikes you’ve never done before, all within a 90-mile radius from Bozeman. Read more >>
“Where the hell am I?” If you’ve spent any amount of time navigating the challenging playground of the Ridge at Bridger Bowl, you’ve undoubtedly asked yourself that question. Read more >>
A fisherman could spend a lifetime exploring Yellowstone’s waters—and it would be a life well spent. At least that’s what I got out of Fly Fishing Yellowstone National Park: An Insider’s Guide to the 50 Best Places (Stackpole Books, $20). Read more >>
The Ridge at Bridger Bowl demands respect. Pointing your skis down any old run can and will put you in way over your head, or cliffed out crying for your mother. Read more >>
If exploring the unknown on foot holds any appeal, open up Peakbagging Montana (Riverbend Publishing, $15) and prepare for a long summer—and a lifetime, for that matter—of vigorous outdoor adventure. Read more >>Entertainment
Is there anything better than sipping a cold one, kicking back with your favorite people, and enjoying an outdoor concert as the summer day draws to a close? Montanans love to celebrate life, and outdoor concerts provide yet another opportunity to do so. Read more >>
More guests, guests in summer pouring into the homes of all southwest Montanans like water through a breach in the earthen wall of the other nine months, friends and family compressing the long supple year to a single point, vacation, so that Montanans can only joke about it among ourselves, abou Read more >>
We’ve all exhausted ourselves enjoying Mother Nature’s struggle between snow and sunshine, skiing one day and biking the next. But as the days lengthen and the temperatures rise, the Pied Piper of summer beckons us from the rivers and trails. Read more >>Weekender
Under-the-radar spring trips. Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road,Healthy, free, the world before me,The long brown path before me leading wherever I choose.—Walt Whitman, “Song of the Open Road” Read more >>Visitor Guide
If Yellowstone Park is America’s Serengeti, as it is often called, then the Absaroka Mountains are Montana’s Alps. Read more >>
I couldn’t believe my eyes. Here I was, languidly enjoying coffee at 10am after spending the night at a designated backcountry campsite on Slough Creek, when the backpackers who reserved the site for that evening began loitering at the edge of it, waiting for me to pack up and leave. Read more >>
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