State Parks in Montana

Montana has 55 state parks, though several of its most spectacular landscapes are protected as national parks, wilderness areas, or national monuments. The state parks fill in important gaps.

Makoshika State Park near Glendive in eastern Montana is the largest state park in Montana at 11,500 acres. It protects one of the richest Cretaceous fossil beds in North America — Triceratops, Tyrannosaurus rex, and Edmontosaurus fossils have all been found here. The name comes from the Lakota for "badlands" or "hell cooled down." The eroded badlands landscape is striking and otherworldly.

Pictograph Cave State Park near Billings protects three caves — Pictograph Cave, Middle Cave, and Ghost Cave — that contain over 100 pictographs painted by Native Americans over a period spanning 2,000+ years. The cave deposits were excavated in the 1930s and 1940s in one of the most important archaeological digs in the northern Great Plains.

Flathead Lake State Park encompasses six separate units around Flathead Lake, the largest natural freshwater lake west of the Mississippi. The units include Wild Horse Island (accessible by boat only), which has bighorn sheep, mule deer, and bald eagles.

Giant Springs State Park in Great Falls is centered on one of the largest freshwater springs in the US — Giant Springs discharges 7.9 million gallons per day into the Missouri River at a constant temperature of 54°F. Meriwether Lewis visited the springs in 1805 during the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

Whitefish Lake State Park in the Flathead Valley provides public access to Whitefish Lake near the resort town of Whitefish. The park is the primary public swimming and boating access to a lake that is otherwise surrounded by private land.

Missouri Headwaters State Park near Three Forks marks the confluence of the Madison, Jefferson, and Gallatin Rivers where they form the Missouri River — the longest river in North America. Lewis and Clark reached this confluence in 1805; the site is historically significant as a Native American gathering place for thousands of years.