Helena has the best access to outdoor opportunities in Montana
Helena’s two greatest assets are its friendly people and its easy access to nature. All told, greater Helena has over 100 miles of trails. Each trail offers the opportunity to get outdoors and find yourself in nature.
Using GIS, we have determined that everyone within the Helena City limits is about 6 miles from a trailhead on either Mount Helena or Mount Ascension. In addition, you are never more than about 3.5 miles from an accessible trail.
Nowhere else in Montana has such easy access to the variety, mileage, and number of trails that we have in Helena.
Whether you are walking, running, or rolling – happy trails!
This site is not designed to take the place of a map. It is a tool for you to use with a map to help plan your outing.
Please share your thoughts and feedback about outdoor recreational activities and help Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks make a good plan for the future of outdoor activities in Montana.
Accessibility
Many of Helena’s trails are rocky and involve decent elevation gain, however, at least 15 miles are accessible to people with limited mobility. Accessibility is important because everyone belongs in nature. The US Census Bureau reports that 10% of the population under 65 years of age and living in Lewis and Clark County are living with a physical disability. We provide an accessible trails list to help ensure that everyone can find a place to get outdoors.
Nature and Health
Multiple studies and articles have been written supporting the idea that nature may be the best medicine after all. The outdoors should be open to everyone, and people should be outside as often as they are able to do so.
Empowering by Informing
HelenaOutdoors is where you can become informed about where and how to engage with nature, but it is not intended to be used on the trail. When the time comes to go outdoors, you should visit Prickly Pear Land Trust’s site and download an interactive map, or if you prefer old school maps, visit the The Base Camp or Montana Book Company downtown where you can purchase a printed, weather-safe South Hills trail map to carry with you.
Linked Sites
HelenaOutdoors links to NatureMT.com so that you can use the image libraries found there to identify wildflowers and butterflies you may see along the trail. A bird library is in progress. HelenaOutdoors is a proud member of American Trails, an organization whose mission is to raise awareness of the value of trails.
More Resources
Visit the resources section for more info about how to engage more deeply with nature as you explore Helena’s outdoor resources.
Locating Trails
This site uses what3words in the format ///word.word.word as a link to the trail or trailhead location for precise location data. If you are unfamiliar with what3words, I encourage you to learn a bit more about it. It is an elegant, and depending upon the combination of words sometimes humorous, way to provide location data, especially when actual addresses may not exist for the location.
Give it a try here – ///dome.rocks.living – this is the geographic center of the City of Helena.
