3 Best Sights in Billings, Little Big Horn, and the Montana Plains, Montana

Devil’s Canyon Overlook, a few miles north of the Wyoming border, affords breathtaking views of the point where narrow Devil's Canyon joins sheer-walled Bighorn Canyon. The overlook itself is on a cliff 1,000 feet above the lake. Look for fossils in the colorful rock layers of the canyon walls.

Over millenia, wind and water carved holes in the sandstone pillars north of Ekalaka, creating an eerie and barren landscape. Embracing the terrain's mystery, Native Americans used the site for rituals to conjure spirits centuries ago. Teddy Roosevelt was struck by the area's unique beauty when he visited in the late 19th century, calling it "as fantastically beautiful a place as I have ever seen." In 1957 the area was designated Medicine Rocks State Park. The 320-acre park is largely undeveloped: aside from a few picnic tables, a short hiking trail, and a handful of unmarked campsites, the land is exactly how it was when Native Americans first performed their ceremonies here.

Although the route will take you slightly out of the way, take I–94 on your way to Hardin and stop at Pompey’s Pillar National Monument, the only on-site physical evidence of the Lewis and Clark expedition. When William Clark saw this small sandstone mesa rising out of the prairie along the Yellowstone River on July 25, 1806, he climbed to the top to survey the area and then marked it with his signature and the date. His graffiti, along with other engravings by early-19th-century fur traders and homesteaders, is still visible. You can climb to the top of the mesa and view the signature year-round during daylight hours. To get to Hardin, continue east on I–94 for a few miles and then head south on Highway 47.