Things to Do in Livingston, Montana

The Yellowstone bends from north to east right at Livingston, and fishing it is the main reason many people come. Dan Bailey, an eastern fly fisherman, opened his fly shop on Park Street in 1938. Today Dan Bailey’s Outdoor Company still sells flies and gear, posts fishing reports and books guided trips.

★ Good to know Livingston is one of the windiest places in the country, so ask at the shop which stretches are fishable on a gusty day.

The Northern Pacific built this depot in 1902 as its launching point for travel to Yellowstone. Reed & Stem, the original architects of New York’s Grand Central, designed it. Trains stopped in 1979, the city got the building in 1985, and it reopened as a museum and event center two years later.

★ Good to know The museum is seasonal, running roughly late May to early September, and admission is charged.

Park County’s history museum sits at 118 W. Chinook St. and covers more than 11,000 years of the area’s story. Exhibits trace Livingston’s role as the historic gateway to Yellowstone, Native cultures, railroads, ranching and rodeo. Outside are a one-room schoolhouse, a blacksmith shop and an original Northern Pacific caboose.

★ Good to know The museum also sells tickets for themed walking tours of town, including a ghost-sign tour.

This city park along the Yellowstone commemorates the Corps of Discovery’s arrival in the valley in 1806. It sits about a half-mile downriver from where Clark’s party probably reached the river. A statue of Sacagawea on horseback, holding her son Jean Baptiste, stands with interpretive signs.

★ Good to know It’s free, and it’s the easiest place in town for a riverside walk or picnic.

The Murray has anchored downtown for more than a century, and director Sam Peckinpah lived there from 1979 to 1984. Anthony Bourdain named it one of his 10 favorite hotels in the world in 2015. The main floor holds the Murray Bar, known for live music, the Second Street Bistro and Gil’s Goods.

★ Good to know Even if you stay elsewhere, the Murray Bar is the place to catch a band in town.

A trail from the Pine Creek Campground climbs to Pine Creek Falls. To get there, go about 9 miles south of town on US 89, then 6 miles up Pine Creek Road. The campground sits in the Absaroka Mountains of the Custer Gallatin National Forest, and the same trailhead continues up to Pine Creek Lake in the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness.

★ Good to know Pine Creek Road is narrow and winding, so leave the big RV in town.

Down Paradise Valley in Pray, Chico has two pools fed by natural geothermal springs and a spot on the National Register of Historic Places. People have been coming for more than 100 years. The resort also has a saloon, a historic dining room and a day spa.

★ Good to know It’s open year-round and sits about 30 miles from Yellowstone’s north entrance. That makes it an easy stop on the way to or from the park.