Paradise Valley — The Yellowstone River, Pine Creek Falls & Emigrant Peak

Paradise Valley earns its name: a broad, ranch-dotted trough where the Yellowstone River — the longest undammed river in the lower forty-eight — runs clear and fast between the towering Absaroka front on the east and the Gallatin Range on the west. Fifty minutes southeast of Bozeman, this is fly-fishing and mountain-hiking country of the first rank, and this two-day escape stays entirely north of Yellowstone National Park to focus on the valley itself. Day one is built around the river: a morning float or wade on the blue-ribbon trout water of the upper Yellowstone, then an afternoon hike up the forested canyon to Pine Creek Falls beneath the Absaroka peaks. The night is spent in the railroad-and-art town of Livingston or the tiny hamlet of Emigrant. Day two turns to the mountains, climbing the trails on the flank of 10,921-foot Emigrant Peak — the valley's iconic pyramid — and walking the Absaroka front before the drive home. Throughout, the Yellowstone's cottonwood banks, the Absaroka's snowfields, and the valley's frontier history give the trip its unmistakable Montana character.