Adventure Worthy: Ghost Town Near Yellowstone National Park Requires Four-Wheel Drive
What better way to celebrate spooky season than visiting a ghost town? And Montana has some great ghost towns that are worth a visit.
Bannack State Park
You can sign up for their "Ghost Walk" which will be held the weekend of October 27-28 this year.
Virginia City
The Virginia City Fall Festival is coming up this weekend September 30 and includes activities throughout the day with a Fireside Ghost Story beginning at 5 pm.
Garnet Ghost Town
Holding the distinguished honor of "Best Preserved Ghost Town in Montana," Garnet is worth a visit, even if there isn't a special event planned. You can see how impressive it is in the pictures below. But if you're looking for something with a little more "adventure required" keep scrolling down.
Garnet Ghost Town, Montana
How about a ghost town that requires four-wheel drive to get to it? Oh, and it has connections to Amelia Earhart, too.
Have You Ever Heard of Kirwin Ghost Town?
Located outside of Meeteetse, Wyoming, and a few hours from Cooke City, Montana, is Kirwin Ghost Town, a place where you'll need four-wheel drive to access it. Not convinced? Think your Toyota Camry can handle it? The Meeteetse Visitor website actually says, "The road itself is not for those lacking a sense of adventure and those faint of heart." They also mention "running and dry creek beds" and "down steep grades." Gulp.
You can get an idea of the terrain from this video.
Besides the adventure of getting there, the town itself holds some fascinating history. According to Meeteetsemuseums.org, Amelia Earhart and her husband George Putnam spent time in the area and ended up loving Kirwin so much, that they commissioned someone to build a summer cabin there. Sadly, it was never finished because of her disappearance. The museum says, "Today, only a few logs remain, but visitors still make the short trek to the site where Amelia was planning to live during the summers."
If you want to get an idea of what it would be like to walk or hike through the Kirwin ghost town, check out this video.
Did you notice the broken structures in the background? Did you know that an avalanche is what led to the town's abandonment? Oh, and it's sort of haunted. Perfect place to visit before the snow flies.