Hot springs in Montana

Montana's thermal springs are concentrated in the western third of the state, according to the Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology. Western Montana is a region of faulted mountain ranges separated by intermontane valleys, and the bureau describes a common pattern: rain and snowmelt move down faults on the sides of the valleys, circulate to great depth, and return to the surface along other faults as warm or hot springs. Low and moderate temperature springs and wells occur in nearly every part of the state. Along the southern border, Montana adjoins the Yellowstone volcanic area, and the park's north entrance sits at Gardiner.

Many of Montana's best-known springs were developed in the late 1800s and early 1900s and remain on private land. The public land around them is mostly national forest: the Beaverhead-Deerlodge, Bitterroot, Lolo and Custer Gallatin national forests. The Bureau of Land Management's Dillon Field Office manages the Bear Trap Canyon unit of the Lee Metcalf Wilderness on the Madison River, and Yellowstone National Park manages the thermal areas just south of the state line in Wyoming.

Winter decides which routes are open. In Yellowstone, the road from the North Entrance at Gardiner through Mammoth Hot Springs to Cooke City is open to wheeled vehicles all year, conditions permitting, while most other park roads close to regular vehicles from early November to late April; in 2026 the closure date was November 1. East of Cooke City, the Beartooth Highway, U.S. 212, is closed between Cooke City and Pilot Creek from late fall to spring. On the Idaho border, U.S. 12 crosses Lolo Pass toward the springs of the Lochsa River in Idaho's Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forests.