Montana is the fourth-largest state in America, but it has fewer people than the city of Spokane. That ratio — vast land, almost nobody on it — is exactly why it's one of the best states for discovering hidden gems.
Most visitors head straight for Glacier National Park or Yellowstone. Both are spectacular. But between those marquee destinations lies a Montana that almost nobody sees: ghost towns that once housed thousands of silver miners, natural hot springs so remote that you might have them entirely to yourself, and geological formations that look like they belong on another planet.
1. Bannack Ghost Town Once the territorial capital of Montana during the 1860s gold rush, Bannack is now a perfectly preserved ghost town with over 60 original buildings. You can walk through the old jail, the hotel, and the church where settlers gathered. Unlike most ghost towns, Bannack is remarkably intact.
2. Granite Ghost Town Perched at 7,000 feet in the Anaconda Range, this former silver mining town produced $40 million in silver before collapsing overnight in 1893. The ruins of the miners' union hall still stand on the hillside.
3. Elkhorn Ghost Town Two buildings remain at Elkhorn: Fraternity Hall and Gillian Hall. They look like they were abandoned last week. Elkhorn boomed in the 1880s and once had 2,500 residents. Today it's completely deserted.
4. Grasshopper Creek The stream where gold was first discovered in Montana in 1862. You can still pan for gold here. The creek runs through Beaverhead County, surrounded by sagebrush hills unchanged since the first prospectors arrived.
5. Lost Trail Hot Springs On the Montana-Idaho border, Lost Trail Hot Springs features outdoor pools fed by natural geothermal water. Go in winter when the mountains are snow-covered and the pools steam in the cold air.
6. Medicine Rocks State Park Eastern Montana's best-kept secret. The park features bizarre sandstone formations — columns, arches, and honeycombed rocks worn into strange shapes. Theodore Roosevelt visited three times and called it "fantastically beautiful."
7. Pictograph Cave State Park Just outside Billings, this cave contains pictographs dating back 4,500 years. The cave was used continuously for millennia, and you can still see hunting scenes and animals painted on the rock face.
8. Bears Paw Battlefield In 1877, Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce were stopped just 40 miles from the Canadian border. The Bears Paw Battlefield preserves the site of their surrender — one of the most moving historic sites in America.
9. Sluice Boxes State Park A narrow limestone canyon with walls rising 200 feet above Belt Creek. A trail follows the old railroad grade through the canyon, crossing the creek on wooden bridges. In June, the wildflowers are extraordinary.
10. Fairy Lake At the foot of the Bridger Range, this small alpine lake is surrounded by limestone peaks. The trail is under 2 miles but the scenery is dramatic. Most Bozeman visitors drive right past the turnoff.