Things to do / Travel Guide
January Events in Yellowstone Park and Teton Village
The International Pedigree Stage Stop Sled Dog Race (IPSSS-DR) is the largest sled dog race in the Continental United States. The race starts in Jackson and travels through Dubois, Lander, Evanston, Kemmerer, Alpine, and, Pinedale, with its final day outside of Teton Village. The race is held over eight days in late January. Snow King Resort hosts festivities after the race at the base of Snow King Mountain, including fireworks, a torch light parade, and a party.
February Events in Jackson
February is full of winter sports festivities that fully embrace the snow of the season. There are your conventional ski and snowboard races around the region, in addition to some unique events. The Cowboy Ski Challenge, for example, redefines speed, as skiers are pulled by a horse traveling up to 40 miles per hour at the base of the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort.
March Events in Jackson and Grand Targhee
Winter's fun continues into March, as the World Champion Snowmobile Hillclimb defies convention and has snowmobilers working their way up, instead of down, the slopes of Jackson. In the second weekend of March, the Rendezvous Marathon Ski Race is a nationally known Nordic event that attracts hundreds of participants. Throughout March and April, the Jackson Hole Winter Mountain Festival features winter sport events and live music each night, with a variety of local, national, and international artists, fireworks and entertainers. The Grand Targhee resort hosts its annual Anheuser-Busch Spring Snow Games in March as well, with contests and events for the whole family.
April Events in Jackson and Cody, Wyoming
Just as ski season comes to an end at the start of April, the Pole-Pedal-Paddle Race provides a smooth transition into Spring. The race combines alpine and cross-country skiing, cycling, and canoeing in a wild competition in Jackson. Many spectators and contestants dress up in costumes for the event; the largest of its kind in the West. For authentic cowboy music, poetry, and story telling, Cody holds a unique western music festival, the Cowboy Songs and Range Ballads, every year on the second weekend of April at the Buffalo Bill Historic Center.
May Events in Jackson and Grand Teton, Wyoming
Head to Jackson's town square in May for the annual ElkFest & Antler Auction, held on the third Saturday of the month. It is the only such auction in the world, attracting hundreds of buyers from all over the world interested in the antlers for use in furniture, belt buckles, and taxidermy, as well as for the South Korean and Chinese aphrodisiac markets. Memorial Day in Jackson means the beginning of Old West Days, an area-wide event that includes a parade, street dance, barbeque dinner, cowboy poetry, bed races, pony rides, children's rodeo and the Mountain-Man Rendezvous at the Teton Country Fair Grounds. The event invites attendees to step back in time to when mountain men and trappers united once a year to trade supplies for furs. Expect to see historic costumes, kid's activities, and plenty of entertainment.
June Rodeo, Old West and Powwow Events in Wyoming and Montana
Rodeos take place from Memorial to Labor Day throughout the Yellowstone region and are certainly a staple of Yellowstone summer fun. The Jackson Hole Rodeo brings old-west style action to the Teton Country fairgrounds every Wednesday and Saturday at 8 pm from June to August. Bull riders, barrel racers, rodeo clowns and serious cowboys are only a sampling of the rodeo's specialties. The Cody Nite Rodeo is considered one of the best in the region, with shows every night at 8:30 from June to August. The Friday and Saturday night shows are recommended. The annual Gardiner Ranch Rodeo is the biggest event in town, held on the third weekend in June in Gardiner.
The Annual Plains Indian Powwow is held in mid-June at the Robbie Powwow Garden at the Buffalo Bill Historic Center in Cody, celebrating the region's rich Native American culture. The event attracts hundreds of participants from the Rockies interested in competing for $10,000 in prize money. Traditional singing and dancing, competitions, Indian arts and crafts, and a variety of Native American cuisine are all part of the celebration.
Also in mid-June, Cody hosts the Old West Show and Auction, an opportunity for collectors to purchase high quality old cowboy gear in one of the finest such events in the nation.
The Helena Bluegrass Festival tears up the town in late June, around the 22nd of the month.
July Rodeo, and Old West Parades in Wyoming and Montana
Rodeos are one of the top summer entertainment activities in the Yellowstone region, and July is a hot month for cowboy riding fun. The Cody Stampede is the biggest July 4th weekend rodeo in the region, but there are plenty of others in Livingston and Red Lodge. Helena and Butte also host rodeos mid-month. In addition to rodeo performances, the Cody Stampede features art shows, street performers, a carnival, fireworks, and a parade each morning of the 4-day event, held from 1-4. With marching bands, mountain men, floats, and cowboys, there likely isn't a better scene to wake up to in the Yellowstone region.
Fourth of July weekend it's time for the Spur Spangled Celebration in Dubois, featuring an ice-cream social, parade, rodeo, barbecue, rubber-ducky races down the river, and a fireworks display. Meanwhile, over in Jackson, The 4th of July offers a parade, rodeo, and impressive fireworks show at Snow King Mountain. That same weekend, visitors may also want to consider checking out the free Music in the Hole outdoor classical concert by the Grand Teton Music Festival orchestra.
In a nod to Yellowstone's history as a crossroads for trappers, settlers, and native Americans of the mid-19th century, reenactments of these mountain men get togethers are scattered throughout the region in the summer months. Red Lodge's Mountain Man Rendezvous, is one such event while Pinedale's Green River Rendezvous is one of the biggest around. Both of these events are held every year in late July.
Visitors will get a taste of Native American culture as well at the Native American Festival Show & Dance in Teton Village. For music lovers, the Yellowstone Jazz Festival is held in Cody every mid-July, featuring regional and national jazz groups. Helena also offers several opportunities to jive with the landscape, like at mid-July's Mt. Helena Music Festival, or the Symphony Under the Stars event on Carroll College Lawn in late-July. Visitors can also check out the Grand Teton Classical Music Festival in Teton Village in July. The Teton Country Fairgrounds becomes the annual site for the Teton Country Fair held late in the month.
For a very special treat, and a taste of some adventure, the last weekend of July in Butte, Montana is marked by Evel Knievel Days. This annual 3-day event, which pays tribute to the town's most famous resident, features free motorcycle riding lessons and demonstrations, live music, a social, a car and motorcycle show, and a fireworks finale.
August Rodeo and Native American Events Around Yellowstone Park
Yellowstone likes to ring in the holiday season a bit early each year, starting the Christmas celebrations in August. Expect to find Old Faithful Inn decked out in Christmas decorations and overflowing with carol singers. The August 25 "Christmas in August" celebration dates back to the turn of the last century, when a freak August snow storm stranded visitors in the Upper Geyser Basin.
West Yellowstone sees rodeos mid-month, while the annual Burnt Hole Rendezvous is a reenactment of the 1859 gathering of native Americans, tradesmen and trappers that includes tomahawk throwing competitions, black-powder marksmanship contests, and plenty of teepees.
One of the country's foremost summer festivals takes place in Red Lodge each year. The nine-day Festival of Nations celebrates the diverse ancestry of the region's historic explorers and miners, celebrating a different culture on each day of the festival with dances, songs, parades, and information on culture, customs, crafts and languages of the culture in focus.
Bozeman hosts the Sweet Pea Festival in early August, the town's premier outdoor art fair. Then on the third weekend in August, Crow Fair in the Crow Agency west of Billings features Native American dances, rodeo, and snacks. Finally, be sure to check out the Targhee Bluegrass Festival held every year in August at Grand Targhee Ski Resort in Idaho's Teton Valley.
September Art Shows and Events in Jackson and Cody, Wyoming
September is a big month for the arts in the Yellowstone area, as the region's biggest towns boast some of the best in regional talent. The Jackson Hole Fall Arts Festival brings live auctions, artists, seminars, and samples of local culinary treats to the region over a 10-day period from mid-to late September every year. The event also has an Arts for the Parks National Art Competition with a top prize of $50,000. The largest art event of the year in Cody takes place in mid-September, as the Buffalo Bill Art Show and Sale features exhibitions, symposiums, auctions, and receptions. The Yellowstone Film Festival late in the month features more than 60 film screenings, workshops, a trade show, and other events in West Yellowstone. On the Friday before Labor Day, the town of Gardiner hosts Buffalo Days, featuring live music, dancing, and lots of barbecued beef, pork, and, of course, buffalo.
October and Halloween Events in Jackson
Early in the month, Quilting in the Tetons brings exhibits, classes, workshops, and quilting demonstrations for a week to Jackson. And at the Jackson Lake Lodge, the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival offers screenings, seminars, workshops and question-and-answer sessions with conservationists and industry professionals for a week in early October. Finally, don't miss the Halloween Bash at Snow King Resort in Jackson.
November Events in Montana
As the winter season settles upon Yellowstone, the bears may go into hibernation, but the rest of the region certainly doesn't. Billings annual holiday parade takes place every year at the end of the month, on the Friday after Thanksgiving at 7 p.m. Local businesses and organizations march in the parade, sponsoring floats and performances that reflect the yearly theme and whip the region into a holiday excitement. In Helena, the Archie Bay Gallery hosts an annual Holiday Exhibition and Sale mid-way through the month, for about a week starting around November 16.
December and Christmas Events in Jackson, Billings and Butte, Montana
December in the Yellowstone region means winter festivities are in full swing. Jackson Hole hosts a Christmas Bazaar early each December, with a variety of arts and crafts, and kids will enjoy a visit to Santa in the Town Square. The annual Torchlight Ski Parades take place at all three ski areas in the Jackson area on Christmas and New Years Eve. In Butte, Montana, the annual Christmas Stroll takes place one evening in the first week of the month in the historic Uptown section of the city. Music, carolers, vendors, tree lighting, and a flashlight parade are all part of the festivities, and uptown businesses all stay open later than usual. The annual Festival of Trees also takes place around the same time in Butte. This is a 2-day auction fundraiser, usually held over the first weekend of December, in which Christmas tress decorated by local businesses and organizations are put on display and auctioned off for charity. Billings has two similar events in the beginning of December as well, getting into the festive holiday spirit by bringing free live entertainment to the streets of Downtown with the annual Christmas Stroll and Tree Festival.
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