By state · MT

National Parks in Montana.

By Nicholas Major · Last updated

Montana's NPS flagship is Glacier National Park, the most-visited unit in the state and one of the most-visited mountain parks in the network. Other Montana NPS units include Big Hole National Battlefield, Little Bighorn Battlefield, Bighorn Canyon NRA, Grant-Kohrs Ranch, and Nez Perce (shared with several other states). Yellowstone's northern entrances are in Montana but Yellowstone itself is administered as a Wyoming-anchored park. Glacier Park International (FCA), Missoula (MSO), and Bozeman (BZN) anchor different parts of the network. Glacier's Going-to-the-Sun Road typically opens in late June and closes by mid-October: the road is the park's signature experience and the bottleneck for most visits. Vehicle reservations are required during peak season; check the official NPS Glacier page for current rules. July through mid-September is the practical summer window.

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Montana map with place names

Montana National Parks map: labeled satellite map, showing 2 locations: Glacier, Yellowstone
Montana's 2 designated National Parks. Dots mark general locations, not entrances. This map does not show every NPS source record in the directory below. Map: National Sites Guide, CC BY 4.0.

Customize or download the Montana map. Change the names, pins and background, or download a ready-made PNG or SVG.

NPS source records in Montana.

Montana has 10 records in our combined NPS metadata and visitor-statistics registry: 2 National Historic Sites · 2 National Parks · 1 National Recreation Area · 1 National Battlefield · 1 National Geologic Trail · 1 National Historic Trail · 1 National Monument · 1 National Historical Park. This is a source-record count, not the Park Service's official system-unit census. Combined 5-year-average annual visits: 8,284,900 (multi-state units count their full visits in every state they touch, see methodology). The most-visited record is Yellowstone National Park at about 4.43M annual visits.

Map of the broader NPS source-record directory
Every National Park Service site in Montana, mapped. Each glowing marker is one site, placed at its real coordinates and colored by type. Select a marker for its yearly visits and a link, or use the filters to show or hide a group. 8 of 10 units are mapped here; long-distance trails and units centered in another state are in the table below.
National Park Service sites in Montana, mapped Interactive map of Montana showing the location of 8 National Park Service sites, colored by type: national parks, monuments and memorials, historic sites, recreation areas and seashores, rivers, trails and parkways, and other sites. It includes the National Parks Glacier National Park and Yellowstone National Park. Each site is also listed with its yearly visits in the table below the map.

Marker positions are each unit's official NPS coordinates. State outline: U.S. Census cartographic boundary (public domain). Independent site, not affiliated with the National Park Service.

UnitDesignation5-yr avg visitsBusiest month
Yellowstone National Park National ParkYELL 4,431,841 July
Glacier National Park National ParkGLAC 3,053,808 July
Nez Perce National Historical Park National Historical ParkNEPE 343,582 June
Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area National Recreation AreaBICA 220,619 July
Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument National MonumentLIBI 152,251 June
Big Hole National Battlefield National BattlefieldBIHO 45,574 July
Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site National Historic SiteGRKO 25,409 July
Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site National Historic SiteFOUS 11,816 June
Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail National Geologic TrailIAFL — —
Lewis & Clark National Historic Trail National Historic TrailLECL — —

Methodology

Rows come from our combined NPS metadata and Visitor Use Statistics registry, not the Park Service's official census of 433 managed system units. Per-record visit counts come from the official NPS Visitor Use Statistics Data Package, 2025; the "5-year average visits" column is the mean of 2021-2025 Recreation Visits. Multi-state records are listed under every state they touch, and their full visit total appears in each state. Official National Park counts use the central 63-park classification rather than the source designation label alone. Independent site, not affiliated with the National Park Service.

Adjacent reading

Independence

Independent site. Not affiliated with or endorsed by the National Park Service. Data comes from the official NPS Visitor Use Statistics Data Package, 2025; editorial analysis is ours. The NPS Arrowhead and other NPS marks are not used.

Last updated · 2026-09-10