Custer National Forest - Montana

Explore rugged wilderness filled with wildlife mixed with Native pictographs, petroglyphs and 4 National Grasslands, all in one awesome national forest!

Custer National Forest once provided shelter and a stable food supply for the Plains Indians. Today, the forest contains Native American burial grounds, pictographs and petroglyphs. Spanning 1.2 million acres of pristine wilderness and some of the richest heritage sites in the U.S., the forest is home to mountain goats, grizzly bear, black bear, elk, deer, grouse, and wild turkey.

Custer National Forest boasts an extensive array of campsites, dispersed camping areas, and 1500 hiking trails, and is actually part of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. The easternmost sections of the forest are a combination of forest "islands" and grasslands and a portion of the forest is part of the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness and constitutes over a third of the wilderness land. Nature-loving visitors will enjoy the abundant pine, spruce and fir trees along with the 4 National Grasslands that are managed by the forest.

Located South of Red Lodge, Montana, the Beartooth Highway (U.S. 212) passes through the Custer National Forest en route to Yellowstone National Park.