Jordan Lefler
Montana’s Great Wide Open: Badlands to Breaks to Beartooths provides road trip inspiration and information to visitors seeking a unique travel experience that encourages discovery of the many treasures to be found in Montana’s wide-open spaces. Three distinctive types of terrain anchor this vast part of the state — the Badlands, the Breaks along the Missouri River and the Beartooth Mountains. The Great Wide Open itineraries give travelers potential paths to explore them all.
Great Wide Open: Badlands to Breaks to Beartooths is a partnership of Central Montana Tourism, Montana's Missouri River Country, Montana's Yellowstone Country and Visit Southeast Montana. Funding for this project was provided by the Montana Department of Commerce.
Central Montana, the heart of the big sky, lays claim to the geographic center of Montana and stretches north to the border with Canada. It's also home to the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument, perhaps the best-known stretch of breaks terrain in the state. Many traces of the history leading to Montana as it's known today can be found here — both in the region's prairie, mountain and breaks landscapes and in its authentic rural towns.
Montana's Missouri River Country encompasses the vast northeast corner of Montana. Here, the expansive landscape delivers far-reaching views of both riveting breaks formations along the region's stretch of the Missouri River and captivating badlands. With its wealth of remote, wild places, Missouri River Country offers more room to roam and discover unparalleled opportunities for recreation — and welcoming towns to return to after the day's adventures.
The iconic wildness of Yellowstone National Park spills north beyond park boundaries into the region known as Montana's Yellowstone Country, where travelers can reach the peak of adventure. Here, where the Beartooth Mountains loom large in the region's history, culture and landscape, incredible recreation and inviting communities nestled in the area's scenic foothills and valleys await.
There's nowhere better than Southeast Montana to experience some of the best badlands topography in the state — including the Terry Badlands Wilderness Study Area and in Makoshika State Park. In this wide-ranging region, come face to face with the past at sites that highlight dinosaur, Native American, military and homesteading history and enjoy the authentic Western culture, hospitality and adventure that are hallmarks of Southeast Montana today.
