Carter G. Walker - Moon Montana: With Yellowstone National Park

: Take advantage of multiple wildlife refuges to see wildlife in their prime habitats.

Beyond Billings, the states largest and most industrial city, much of eastern Montana is made up of small but tightly knit communities separated by vast swaths of wide-open country. Its also where four of the states seven Indian reservations can be found. The landscapes are varied and dramaticfrom the rimrocks in Billings and the rolling hills around the Little Bighorn Battlefield to the badlands of Makoshika State Park outside Glendive.

The vast plains erupt into soaring peaks along the Rocky Mountain Front. The Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex is one of the most spectacular and isolated mountainous areas in the Lower 48. Tiny towns like Choteau and Fort Benton offer a charming sense of community, along with fascinating sites like dinosaur mecca Egg Mountain and lovely historic hotels. Straddling the division between mountains and plains, Great Falls boasts two of the states best museums: the C. M. Russell Museum and Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail Interpretive Center.

Known as the Crown of the Continent, Glacier National Park embodies the Montana youve always imagined: rugged mountains piercing the sky, crystalline lakes and plunging waterfalls, abundant wildlife, gravity-defying roads, and miles upon miles of trails. For now, the park still lays claim to 25 glaciers.