Montana Park of the Week: Fish Creek State Park

This week's showcase is Fish Creek State Park! Fish Creek State is located conveniently off Interstate 90, about 41 miles west of Missoula, making it easily accessible to residents and travelers.

From the lookout atop Williams Peak to the crystal-clear emerald pools of Fish Creek, this state park is full of wildlife, beautiful scenery, and places to explore.

Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks first acquired ownership of Fish Creek a decade ago in 2010. However, the process of Fish Creek becoming a Montana State Park began long before then.

Groups including the Nature Conservancy and the Trust for Public Land worked for years on the Montana Legacy Project, an effort to purchase lard swaths of land from private interests, including the Plum Creek Timber company, the previous owner of the lands surrounding Fish Creek, for conservation and public access.

Due to the success of the Montana Legacy Project, Fish, Wildlife, and Parks were able to acquire Fish Creek State Park.

The park's future will depend on the ability of FWP to organize and execute its management plan for the park while working to find compromises and balance the interests of recreation and habitat conservation at the park.

Fish Creek State Park is the second-largest state park and home to Montana's largest ponderosa pine, "Big Pine." A sight worth visiting all on its own.

Fish Creek State Park covers more than 5,600 acres, making it the largest state park in western Montana. The park is part of a larger state-owned public land complex, covering more than 45,000 acres, managed by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP).

The campgrounds at Big Pine and Forks Fishing Access Sites and day-use sites on the Alberton Gorge and the Fish Creek Wildlife Management Area are managed by FWP divisions. A much larger tract of public land exists in the neighboring national forest.

Shaped by decades of logging, the forest landscape of the park offers dramatic views of the industrial past and its recovering present. Although closed to the public, a historic fire tower sits atop Williams Peak, offering an expansive view of the park and the surrounding Bitterroot mountain range and the Great Burn proposed wilderness.