Maps: Northeast Region

The Northeast region of the state is a huge area stretching from the Rocky Mountain Front to the North Dakota border. It is an area where you can truly appreciate Montana’s Big Sky with its startling blue sky, billowing white cloud formations and spectacular sunsets and sunrises. This part of the state is a mix of high prairie, island mountain ranges, buttes, badlands, river canyons, reservoir lakes, and prairie potholes. It is a land of sweeping vistas broken by the Bear Paw Mountains, the Sweetgrass Hills and Little Rocky Mountains. It’s a place where you can see long distances to endless horizons.

It’s a land that is always changing from season to season influenced by wind and water. The Teton, Marias, Milk, Judith and Mussellshell Rivers all wend their way to the Missouri creating broad expanses of grasslands that are not flat, but gently rolling broken by coulees. This is a land that was the hunting ground for the Native Americans. While the bison are gone and other large animals have retreated to the mountains, this landscape is still home to wildlife and enormous populations of birds. This area is a flyway for migratory birds and the two Wilderness areas, UL Bend and Medicine Lake were designated specifically to protect birds and wildlife.

The Missouri River flows through the center of the region and the Breaks country is its own unique natural landscape with spectacular geological formations, a wide variety of birds along the river and the powerful pull of history as the land visited by Lewis and Clark. This is a place of untamed beauty and flourishing wildlife, rich in cultural history and geologic wonders. The landscape here, the view of white cliffs and long, sweeping river bends, is remarkably unchanged. This is how Lewis and Clark saw the landscape on their westward journey 200 years ago and how Native American tribes experienced it for thousands of years before that. When you’re standing in the Breaks at dusk, 50 miles from any artificial light source, the welcome solitude of Wilderness is appreciated. The natural and historical richness of the Missouri Breaks explains why the area was designated a National Monument by the U.S. President in 2001.

You can get involved in this region by contacting our Island Range Chapter (Great Falls) or joining us on a Wilderness Walk.

The Medicine Lake Wilderness, UL Bend Wilderness (Wilderness Areas), and Upper Missouri Breaks National Monument (Programs) are found in this region.