Montana State Map

Geography of Montana

Montana is the largest landlocked state. Roughly the western third is mountains; the rest is the high, rolling Great Plains, cut by the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers. The Continental Divide runs through the western mountains, so western Montana drains to the Pacific and the rest of the state to the Gulf of Mexico by way of the Missouri River.

Western Montana: the Rockies

• Northwest: Kalispell, Whitefish and Flathead Lake, one of the largest natural freshwater lakes in the West, in the Flathead Valley southwest of Glacier National Park.
• Missoula and the Bitterroot: Missoula sits where five valleys meet; the Bitterroot Valley runs south toward Hamilton between the Bitterroot and Sapphire ranges.
• Southwest: Butte, Dillon and the old mining country along the Divide, plus Bozeman and the Gallatin Valley.
• Helena: the capital lies in a valley east of the Divide, near the Missouri River.

Glacier and Yellowstone

Glacier National Park covers the Rockies along the Canadian border; the Going-to-the-Sun Road crosses it at Logan Pass. To the south, three of the five entrances to Yellowstone National Park are in Montana: Gardiner (North), Cooke City–Silver Gate (Northeast) and West Yellowstone (West). The Beartooth Mountains, home to Granite Peak, rise along the Wyoming line.

Eastern Montana: the Great Plains

• Hi-Line: the farming towns along US 2 and the railroad near the Canadian border, including Havre, Glasgow and Wolf Point.
• Missouri Breaks: rugged badlands along the Missouri River below Fort Benton, now a national monument; the river is dammed farther east at Fort Peck Lake.
• Yellowstone Valley: Billings, Miles City and Glendive along the Yellowstone River, which flows northeast to join the Missouri just across the North Dakota line.
• Southeast: the Crow and Northern Cheyenne reservations and Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument near Crow Agency.

Rivers

The Missouri River begins near Three Forks, where the Jefferson, Madison and Gallatin rivers meet, and flows north past Helena and Great Falls before turning east. West of the Divide, the Clark Fork drains much of western Montana, passing Missoula on its way to Lake Pend Oreille in Idaho. The lowest point in Montana, about 1,800 ft, is on the Kootenai River where it leaves for Idaho.

Major highways

• I-90: the main east–west route, from the Idaho line at Lookout Pass through Missoula, Butte, Bozeman, Livingston and Billings, then southeast past Hardin into Wyoming.
• I-94: branches off I-90 east of Billings and runs through Miles City and Glendive to North Dakota.
• I-15: north–south from Idaho through Dillon, Butte, Helena, Great Falls and Shelby to the Canadian border at Sweetgrass.
• US 2: the Hi-Line across the north, from Libby and Kalispell past Glacier National Park to Havre, Glasgow and the North Dakota line.
• US 93: north from Idaho through the Bitterroot Valley to Missoula, Flathead Lake, Kalispell and the Canadian border.
• US 212: the Beartooth Highway from Red Lodge over Beartooth Pass to Cooke City and Yellowstone; it closes in winter.