Giant Springs State Park

Giant Springs State Park sits on the east bank of the Missouri River on the north-east edge of Great Falls, and its centrepiece is one of the largest freshwater springs in the United States. Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks puts the flow at more than 156 million gallons a day. The water stays at a constant 54 °F, so in winter the pools steam while the river around them freezes, and in summer the shaded lawns are a cool place to sit.

The water does not start here. It falls as snowmelt in the Little Belt Mountains about 60 miles away and, according to chlorofluorocarbon dating, spends roughly 3,000 years moving through the Madison Limestone before it surfaces. The outflow forms the Roe River, about 200 feet long and once listed by Guinness as the shortest river in the world. Beside the spring, the Giant Springs Fish Hatchery raises trout, and visitors can walk through the visitor centre and feed fish in the show pond.

The park is also a hub of the River's Edge Trail, a network of paved and dirt paths that FWP says runs to nearly 60 miles around the city. Inside the park and along its trails you can reach four of the Missouri's waterfalls and the site of a fifth, Colter Falls, now underwater behind Rainbow Dam. The park has about 14 miles of river shoreline, a fishing pond, picnic shelters and a playground.

William Clark recorded the spring on 18 June 1805 while scouting the falls during the expedition's portage, and judged it the largest he had seen. Before that the Blackfeet used it as a winter water source. Townspeople from Great Falls made it a Sunday outing from the 1880s, and it became a state park in the mid-1970s.

The park is day-use only and stays open year-round from sunrise to sunset, which makes it one of the few Great Falls sights that keeps full access through the 2026/27 winter. The Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center next door is closed for renovation from 1 October 2026 to 1 April 2027, so plan on the spring, the hatchery and the trail instead. In summer the park runs family trivia nights on Tuesday evenings; call 406-727-1212 for weather cancellations.