Where can you get horses and dinosaurs in one spot? Saddle up for a wild ride around Billings, where both riding trails and fossils await. Eastern Montana is home to both Southeast Montana and Missouri River Country tourism regions, where rolling plains, prairies, and badlands intersect to form some of the Lower 48's vastest stretches of pristine landscape.
Voted Outside Magazine's BEST TOWN of 2016, Billings boasts amazing urban and outdoor recreation for all ages and thrill levels. Rustic Western heritage, natural beauty, small town charm and big-city attractions - Billings is Montana's trailhead. Need help getting started? Check out any or all of these amazing adventures and family will not be disappointed.
Learn the ropes of ranch work at Elk River Outfitters, where guides take groups past Pryor Creek's timbered, rolling hills and through the Yellowstone Valley.
Find rugged terrain and urban scenes along Rimrock Trail, a 4.5-mile hiking and biking route beginning at Zimmerman Park. Canyon rims and slickrock ledges line the route.
Pick up a Junior Ranger book at Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument to help your kids absorb the game changing battle here between Custer's 7th Cavalry and the Sioux and Cheyenne people.
See a life-size model of a T. rex at Fort Peck Interpretive Center and Museum. Kids can pose with a 700 pound Apatosaurus femur at Phillips County Museum, or learn about field and lab work at the Great Plains Dinosaur Museum and Field Station's Junior Paleo program. Pick up a Montana Dinosaur Trail Prehistoric Passport at any of these museums and follow its map to other Dinosaur Trail stops.
Trace the footsteps of Lewis and Clark by fishing, camping and hiking along the scenic Yellowstone and Missouri rivers. Fort Peck Lake Reservoir and Recreation Area offers 50 species of fish - perfect for your first family fishing trip - with camping nearby at the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge.
