39th Stop - Whitehall, MT

Blog Post #50 - Written February 20, 2026

Stay: August 16, 2025

When I booked our Harvest Host stay (one night pitstop) in Whitehall, I never would have guessed how dear this little town would become to us.  

We pulled into town and our first thought was, "Wow! I feel like we've been here before!"  Turns out, we had.  When we left our campground in Dillon for Special K Ranch, we drove right through the little downtown area of Whitehall.  

Our camp spot for the night was in an alley behind one of the local churches.  Only felt a little bit sketchy... But we maneuvered ourselves and only stuck out a little bit into the alley.  We saw some locals riding their horses past our trailer as they went to and from the bar around the corner. Good 'ole western towns.

Since we had some daylight left, we checked out the Western Legacy Museum, a cool spot that displayed fossils found by locals, gems and rocks, and other historical finds.  The kids all got to pick out a rock to take home.

The other half of the museum was a gift shop.  The museum continued along the walls with displays, paintings of western and tribal history, and saddles.  But the highlight was a massive dugout canoe, hand carved and could fit around 13 men.  The kids all sat on pillows and started paddling.  

When we were about to head out, we met Sam, a professor of Primitive Skills at Green College.  He told us that he and his students had spent 7 months carving the canoe with ancient tools. They even took it on an 11 day (I think) voyage down the Jefferson River.  They keep it at the museum and often bring it out for local parades. The college sounded absolutely fascinating,  specializing in foraging, hunting-gathering, and learning the skills that the ancient settlers and indigenous people used to survive in Montana. 

Sam let us know that there were some hot springs at the edge of town that we definitely needed to check out.  He said to ignore any negative reviews on Google, that those were just locals trying to scare away tourists from taking over their hidden gems haha.  Since we were only there the one night, we decided to visit the springs early the next morning, before church.  

The springs were awesome.  They ran alongside the river, which caused the water temperature to vary, getting hotter as you went away from the river's center.  The locals had made pools out of the river rocks, so we dipped our toes in each pool.  There were some extremely hot pools, but we found most of the water extremely comfortable.  The kids preferred the cooler pools, until they stood up and wanted something warmer.  

The only downside is that we smelled completely of sulfur. We attempted to rinse off the best we could before church.

We absolutely loved this little ward.  The people were so inviting and welcoming.  By the end of church, we had been invited by at least 6 different families to come to the linger longer potluck afterwards, and begged us to come back the next week for their annual rodeo. We sat next to one family, who said that they hadn't heard enough of our journey and invited us over for games after church.  

It was so much fun chatting and touring their little homestead.  The kids all played together, along with their pet gecko. They had chickens and a greenhouse with delicious cherry tomatoes (and I don't even like tomatoes).  A couple of other families joined us too, including a couple who I went to BYU-I with. They were even in the same apartment complex. We couldn't quite remember each other, but we knew each other's friends. Small world.

I have to admit that I shed a tear or two as we left their home. It felt like we had found a little bit of home in this small town.  Even the road leaving Whitehall was an enchanting road of beautiful rocky ridges. Looked like a cool place to explore and go hiking.  We loved this little pitstop and wished we could have stayed a day or two more.