Montana

Big Sky Country – now that's a nice name! Not surprisingly, with a nickname like that, Montana is an excellent location for people who love year-round outdoor activities. The state shares claim (with northwestern Wyoming and parts of east-central Idaho) to parts of Yellowstone National Park, which was founded in 1872 and is the first and oldest national park in the world (and has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1978). Montana also contains Glacier National Park in the northwest, which was established in 1910 and, with Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta, Canada, is part of the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park – the first international peace park and also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

So enjoy your cycling, bird-watching, fly-fishing (we've all seen A River Runs Through It), cross-country and downhill skiing, snowboarding, white-water rafting, golfing (Montana has more than 70 golf courses), hiking, camping, horseback riding, climbing – the list goes on. And your children will certainly enjoy visiting dino-digs along the Rocky Mountain Front and spending time at a dude ranch.

But there's more – Montana is also the perfect place to relax after such activity! The state, a geological and geothermal wonderland, has more than two dozen hot spring locations and 30 other natural hot spring sites. The hot spring resorts are also a nice place to relax during the cold winters – the state can experience bitter cold, but the temperatures can be extremely variable. According to the state website, Montana's north-central community of Loma holds the record for the greatest temperature change in 24 hours: 103 degrees – from -54F (-47C) to 49F (8C) – on January 15, 1972.

Montana has a small population of 917,621, which is quite spread out. The capital, Helena, was originally a small gold mining town. It hasn't grown that much from its origins, having a small population of 25,780 in the city itself and only about 25,000 more in the greater Helena Valley area. Helena, the Queen City of the Rockies, is located at 4,200 feet (1280 meters) along the eastern slope of the Continental Divide. An interesting feature of Helena, particularly for those who have toured Austria, is St. Helena Cathedral, which is a replica of the Votive Church in Vienna.

The university town, Missoula, is somewhat larger, at about 57,053. The town is located a few hours drive from both Glacier and Yellowstone national parks, so the Montana Territories website jokes, "Just as the university students leave each year, the tourists arrive."

Montana spreads from the Rockies in the west to high prairie in the east, and about a quarter of its area is covered by forests. Not surprisingly, its major industry is agriculture – mostly large-scale farming with the average farm being 2,054 acres (831 hectares) – along with tourism, lumber, and mining (e.g. coal, oil, natural gas, copper, gold, lead, silver, zinc, talc, platinum, etc.).

In Montana, you can strike gold in more ways than one.

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