Helena - Montana's cute little capital

As part of David's new job he had to travel to Helena, Montana. We've both been to Montana before, but only briefly - once to Makoshika state park on the far east side of the state when we were visiting North Dakota, and once to a couple of the Montana towns that border Yellowstone. So Paul decided to join and we added on a few days for a little Montana vacation. We started and ended in Helena, the capital city.

Helena is a charming city of 31,000 people. For such a small city it has surprisingly impressive buildings, and a number of historic sites from the town's early history. The downtown is compact and centered around a pedestrian mall (Last Chance Gulch), and is set right up against the hiking trails of Mt. Helena park. It is a relatively quiet city, but there are a number of restaurants and shops in downtown, and Last Chance Gulch is a bit of a tourist attraction.

The historic structures in Helena include an original pioneer cabin, an impressive cathedral, a fire watch tower overlooking the city, the state capitol building, stately office buildings downtown, and a neighborhood full of restored old houses. The city has a fantastic walking tour app that includes a great map and plenty of information about all of the sites. It has a neat feature where you can stand in certain spots around the city, raise your phone up, and see a historic image overlaid (live) on your current view. This is the first time I've seen augmented reality used this way in an app. Very cool, and we highly recommend this app for a 1/2 day walking tour around the city. Most of the sites, except the state capitol, are all clustered in easy walking distance of each other. Just watch out for the hills!

Reeder's Alley is a good place to start. It's just southwest of the main part of downtown. It's the oldest intact part of the city, built in the 1870s. It's now home to a couple of restaurants and shops, and is a nice place to relax and take in the history.

The atmospheric buildings of Reeder's Alley, with Mt. Helena Park in the background.

A cat in Reeder's Alley.

There's a preserved pioneer cabin at the entrance to Reeder's Alley.

Just up the street from Reeder's Alley is Mt. Helena Park, a series of trails in the mountains next to the city. It's a great amenity. Paul did a short hike here while David was in a work meeting.

There's a great trail network right in the city. This is just a few minutes walk from downtown.

View of the city from Mt. Helena Park.

A deer in someone's yard.

Historic buildings in downtown.

The original governor's mansion.

An old truck on a street lined with trees and historic houses.

The huge cathedral.

Why is this in Helena?

The cathedral is worth visiting for the stained glass alone.

The door of an old prison building (now an arts center).

Some treats at Park Avenue Bakery.

Last Chance Gulch is the main attraction of the city. It's a street that has been converted to a pedestrian mall. The street is lined with beautiful buildings from the late 1880s. While downtown Helena is a little sleepy, it's very impressive for a city of only 30,000 people. The old buildings reflect the power and prestige of the railroads and the mining industry.

Last Chance Gulch.

Of course we found ice cream! "Big Dipper" is in Last Change Gulch.

Montana women's mural.

The Atlas building, Paul's favorite in the city.

It has a dramatic off-centered stone arch.

The top of the Atlas building has salamanders and fire.

Another cool downtown building, right at the end of the pedestrian portion of Last Chance Gulch.

Here's how the building above used to look, using the historic view feature in the walking app.

Part of a mural.

There are a lot of nice buildings on Last Chance Gulch.

We found a giant pretzel at one of the restaurants on the Gulch.

Classic looking.

Another historic view in the app.

The rest of the sites we visited were better reached by car, as they were outside of the central core of Helena. The state capitol building and Montana Historical Society museum are both worth visiting.

The civic center is Moorish in style, and really stands out.

It was closed, but a nice employee let me in for a little tour.

The neighborhood near the civic center is full of grand houses.

Great Northern town center is an interesting new urban area.

It has a "Lewis and Clark" themed trail down the center, lined with businesses, shops, and apartments.

Part of the Lewis and Clark theme.

Carroll College

We found a pasty food truck for lunch. It was really good.

Heavy but delicious. Recommended!

Statue in front of the capitol.

Montana's state capitol building.

The interior of the dome.

Stairway and skylight in the capitol.

The capitol isn't huge, but it has some nice art and grand arches.

Time for the historical society museum, right across from the capitol. Here's Paul with a prehistoric beaver-like animal.

They had huge buffalo hides/furs you could try on.

A fossil exhibit. Montana is known for dinosaur fossil sites.

A diorama of a buffalo jump.

At the end of our trip, as we were driving back in to Helena, we drove by a large wildfire. The "North Hills Fire" was burning just 10 miles from downtown Helena. Luckily the wind was pushing the smoke away from the city. This is the closest we've been to a major fire, and it was quite shocking to watch. Unfortunately this is becoming the new normal out West, and this fire was tiny compared to some of the massive fires in California over the past few years. It was interesting to watch huge planes taking off from the Helena airport to dump retardant on the fire.

Smoke from the interstate.

A massive plume of smoke.

The rest of our time in Montana was spent in and around Glacier National Park, which we'll cover in the next couple of posts.