Hamilton Location

Located along US Highway 93 in south western Montana. Travelers coming into Hamilton will enter from the south after driving over beautiful Lost Trail Pass from Idaho. From Lost Trail Pass it is a beautiful drive through the Sula, and then Darby Montana.

Bitterroot Valley

The Bitterroot Valley is a wide open valley drained by the Bitterroot river. It starts up near Lost Trail Pass (Connecting Montana and Idaho) and comes down through Sula, Darby, Hamilton, Corvallis, Victor, Stevensville and Florence, Montana, ending with Missoula Montana.

The Bitterroot National Forest manages much of the mountainous lands on either side of the valley. One of the most beautiful features of the valley is the view of Blodgett Canyon to the west of Hamilton. These awesome cliffs are a sight to see as they catch the early sun on a clear day.

The Bitterroot Valley is named after a delicate flower which grows in the valley and was a staple food of the local native tribes. Another, still popular, edible local plant is the morels mushroom which sends crowds of happy morels addicts out into the woods each spring in gathering hunts.

Bitterroot River

The Bitterroot River gained its first fame as a primary location in the book "A River Runs Through It"by Norman Maclean: a haunting tale of family and fly fishing.

Fly fishing is still a popular sport along the Bitterroot River, as well as numerous other streams in the area. Boating and kayaking are also often regularly enjoyed on the Bitterroot River.

Wilderness Area

The Bitterroot National Forest is a spectacular 1.6 million acre forest in southwestern Montana and Idaho. Half of the Bitterroot National Forest is composed of the protected Selway Bitterroot, Frank church River of No Return, and the Anaconda Pintler wilderness areas. These highly glaciated and rugged peaks are popular hiking, hunting and fishing grounds filled with elk, deer, moose, bear, and numerous smaller species.

Fishing and Hunting

The Hamilton Montana area boasts some of the best hunting and fishing areas in the world (or so we like to think). There is easy access out of Hamilton into miles of trails filled with big game, and ripe with fish.

Lost Trail Pass

Lost Trail Pass is famous from the Lewis and Clark Expedition. As they came over the pass from Idaho into Montana, they lost the trial and spent several miserable days in heavy snow storms. And this was just the first of their miseries. As winter was closing in the unhappy expedition sloshed through the Montana mountains, finally reaching Oregon in a state of near starvation.

Local Hot Springs

The Hamilton Montana area has many natural hot springs, both public and private.