Welcome to Choteau, Montana

Choteau sits where the Great Plains meet the Rocky Mountain Front — a small Montana town with enormous views, uncrowded trails, and the kind of unhurried hospitality that the West was built on. With a population of around 1,800, Choteau serves as the gateway to some of the most spectacular wildlands in the Lower 48 and a basecamp for adventurers heading into the Bob Marshall Wilderness.

Where to Stay

Hotels & Motels

• Big Sky Motel — Clean, affordable rooms on Main Street with mountain views from the parking lot. From $89/night
• Stage Stop Inn — The town's largest lodging with 48 rooms, an indoor pool, and a restaurant on-site. From $109/night
• Choteau Mountain View Lodge — Family-run property at the edge of town with unobstructed views of Ear Mountain. From $99/night

Cabins & Vacation Rentals

• Pine Butte Guest Ranch — A Nature Conservancy property offering rustic cabins on a working cattle ranch, with guided naturalist programs
• Rocky Mountain Front Cabins — Secluded cabin rentals along the Teton River, 15 minutes from town

Where to Eat

• Elk Country Grill — Local favorite for steaks, burgers, and Montana craft beer on tap
• Log Cabin Family Restaurant — Hearty breakfasts and homemade pie that fuel a day on the trail
• Buckhorn Bar — A genuine Montana bar with pool tables, cold drinks, and the occasional live band
• Choteau Farmers Market — Seasonal Saturday market with local produce, baked goods, and artisan crafts

Things to Do

Outdoor Adventures

• Pine Butte Swamp Preserve — A 18,000-acre Nature Conservancy preserve where grizzly bears still roam the prairie
• Teton Pass Ski Area — A hidden gem of a ski area with 34 runs and virtually no lift lines
• Freezout Lake Wildlife Management Area — Hundreds of thousands of snow geese and tundra swans stop here during spring migration
• Bob Marshall Wilderness — Over a million acres of pristine backcountry accessible from trailheads west of town

History & Culture

• Old Trail Museum — Local history from dinosaur fossils to homesteader artifacts, housed in a collection of historic buildings
• Egg Mountain — The site where paleontologist Jack Horner discovered the first dinosaur eggs in the Western Hemisphere
• Choteau Mural Walk — Large-scale paintings on downtown buildings depicting the area's ranching and natural heritage

Why Choteau

• Uncrowded access — Experience Montana's wildest landscapes without the crowds of Glacier or Yellowstone
• Dinosaur country — World-class paleontological sites and museums
• Wildlife spectacle — Spring waterfowl migration at Freezout Lake is one of North America's great wildlife events
• Genuine Montana — A real working town, not a tourist fabrication

Choteau is Montana the way you imagined it. Come see for yourself.