Billings & Southeast Montana

Billings and its Rimrocks, the Little Bighorn Battlefield, Pompeys Pillar, Bighorn Canyon and the dinosaur badlands of Makoshika.

Billings is Montana's largest city, with about 117,000 people in 2020. The Northern Pacific founded it in 1882, and it grew so fast that it earned the nickname the Magic City. Sandstone cliffs called the Rimrocks run along its northern edge, with the airport on top, and Pictograph Cave State Park, just south of the city, preserves rock paintings more than 2,000 years old. Billings is the gateway to the Beartooth Highway and Yellowstone's Northeast Entrance, about 130 road miles away via Red Lodge. About an hour south-east, near Crow Agency on the Crow Reservation, Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument marks the site of the battle of 25–26 June 1876, in which Lakota, Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho warriors defeated the 7th Cavalry under George Armstrong Custer. The monument includes the Custer National Cemetery and the Reno-Benteen site; the anniversary is remembered each June. Hardin, about 16 miles north, is the nearest town. East of Billings, Pompeys Pillar National Monument protects a sandstone butte where William Clark carved his name and the date on 25 July 1806, the only physical evidence left by the Lewis and Clark expedition on its route. To the south, Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area follows a deep canyon flooded by Yellowtail Dam; its northern district is reached via Fort Smith, Montana, and no road links it to the southern district in Wyoming. Further east, Miles City has held its Bucking Horse Sale every May since 1951, and Makoshika State Park at Glendive, the largest state park in Montana, protects badlands where dinosaur fossils have been found. May to September is the best season.