Missouri Headwaters — Where Three Rivers Become One

Forty minutes west of Bozeman, at the quiet town of Three Forks, three of the great rivers of the West — the Jefferson, the Madison, and the Gallatin — braid together across a cottonwood floodplain to form the Missouri, the longest river in North America. Missouri Headwaters State Park protects this confluence, a landmark that stopped the Lewis and Clark expedition in their tracks in July 1805 and that had been a crossroads for Native peoples for millennia before. This is a day of gentle, water-focused exploration rather than peak-bagging: paddling the slow braided channels by canoe, walking the interpretive Headwaters trails past the sites where the Corps of Discovery camped, and climbing the short bluff to Fort Rock for the panoramic view over the meeting of the waters. History runs deep here — Sacagawea was captured near this spot as a child — and the birdlife along the cottonwood bottoms is superb. A relaxed lunch in the little railroad town of Three Forks completes the loop.