Helena

East Helena Valley is mostly open fields and farmland. The gentle landscape lets residents look across the flats from one side of the area to the other. Lake Helena is a short drive away, and fishermen, hunters and birdwatchers head to the water for its rainbow trout, mourning dove and warblers. People also tend to use their land for all sorts of recreation. “There's a lot of hay ground and farm ground and horse properties,” says Tara Petersen, Realtor with Mt Ranch and Home Real Estate and Helena resident. “People own and ride horses on their land." The area’s residential portions are subdivisions off Lake Helena Drive, which leads up to access points around Lake Helena. Ranch-style houses with larger parcels sit sporadically along York Road, which leads towards Helena. Lake Helena is open for boating, fishing and hunting waterfowl. The northwestern shore of the lake is a wildlife management area where most of the recreational activities, including trail hiking, take place. Fishers also head to Hauser Lake, a popular fishing area that’s separated from Lake Helena by Lake Helena Drive. Avid golfers tee up at Fox Ridge Golf Course, an 18-hole green and a clubhouse where local musicians often play live sets. The land is the prize for homebuyers in East Helena Valley. Houses on the grassy flats often have round rail fences to mark the borders of the property, or they’re in subdivisions that skirt hundreds of acres of public land and farmland around Lake Helena that people use for recreation. “There's a lot of public land where people go ride,” says Petersen. 2,500 square foot homes are the norm and properties tend to be chalet or contemporary style and most homes sell for between $550,00 and $1 million. The area is served by Helena Public Schools, which has a B-plus rating on Niche. Warren Elementary School has a B rating and Helena Middle School has a B-plus. Helena High School has a B rating and a variety of after-school activities for students to enjoy like outdoors, art and ukelele clubs. Transportation A car or truck is the best way to get around East Helena Valley and into Helena proper, which is about five miles away. The nearest major roadway is Interstate 15, which is also next to the Helena Regional Airport and St. Peter's Health, both about five miles away. The Lewis and Clark Fairground is the Helena hub for music, rodeo and other events. The Last Chance Stampede and Fair thunders into Helena every year, turning the fairground into a swirl of live music, rodeo performances and antique cars. Other seasonal events like Fall Fest provide activities for people all over Helena year-round. People have a couple of different options for shopping and dining. East Helena, a small unincorporated community about five miles away, has a Heritage Food Store and a few restaurants, like Smith’s Place, Leilani’s Lattes and Missouri River Brewing Company. Helena is about eight miles away and has more restaurants like Shellie’s Country Café, and grocery stores like Van’s Thriftway. Blaze-N-Gems, a locally owned jeweler inside a log-cabin-style building, is one of East Helena Valley’s few retail stores. The store sells a wide variety of gems and stones and some, like the Montana Sapphire, are unique to the area.

Deep in the southwestern slopes of Mount Helena, houses are built on multi-acre lots in a neighborhood called Gulches. “You can buy your own parcel of land and they’re not right beside each other,” says Tara Petersen, a Realtor with Mt Ranch and Home Real Estate. “It’s more of a county feel out there.” Backyards feel more like nature preserves where it’s easy to camp, hunt, fish and hike.  Mount Helena is part of Gulches’ backyard, where the mountainside is full of Douglas fir, white bark pine and Engelmann spruce trees. Montana is called Big Sky Country for a reason, and hikers can get closer to the seemingly endless skyline after hiking a mile or so up to the peak, which is 5,468 feet above sea level. “[Gulches has] people that like to mountain bike or hike or garden, and be close to town but still out in the country,” says Sandra Kokoruda, a Realtor with Uncommon Ground LLC. The Mount Helena Trailhead is about a mile from most of the houses in Gulches and is the hub for several different trails. They lead to the crags and blackened stone of Devil’s Kitchen, the peak of the mountain and “The H,” a Helena landmark. The 1906 trail is one of the mountain’s most popular routes and has about 1,000 feet of elevation gain. Houses in the Gulches neighborhood tend to be chalet style, with wood siding and building materials. This part of Helena gives people space to be far from their neighbors, although there is a sense of community in the area. Properties start at around $500,000 and can reach up to $800,000. Buyers can also buy plots of land for around $1 million. The area is served by Helena Public Schools, which has a B-plus rating on Niche. Hawthorne Elementary School has a B rating and Helena Middle School has a B-plus. Helena High School has a B rating and a variety of after-school activities for students to enjoy like outdoors, art and ukelele clubs. A car or truck is the best way to get around Gulches and into Helena, about 10 miles away. The nearest major roadway is Interstate 15, next to the Helena Regional Airport. Both are about 10 miles from Gulches. The Lewis and Clark Fairground is the Helena hub for music, rodeo and other events. The Last Chance Stampede and Fair thunders into Helena every year, turning the fairground into a swirl of live music, rodeo performances and antique cars. Other seasonal events like Fall Fest provide activities for people all over Helena year round. People head into Helena to grab the essentials or sit down for a bite to eat. The Windbag Saloon, housed in a historic Italianate building, was constructed in 1882, and the business has been a Helena staple since 1977. It’s along Last Chance Gulch St, one of Helen's well-known shopping and dining areas. For groceries, most people head to Van’s Thriftway.

Just off Interstate 15, Lower East Side is a neighborhood on the come up. “A lot of people love living in that neighborhood,” says Maria Demaray, a Broker with Big Sky Brokers who’s sold homes in Helena. “The city has been investing in that area,” says Demaray. “Helena College has a great campus over there.” Lower East Side is home to three parks, and only two miles north of the hiking trails that go up and down Mount Ascension and Mount Helena. For a homebuyer looking to buy a fixer-upper in a neighborhood close to the highway and a short drive to popular hiking trails, Lower East Side provides. Montanans are prepared to drive just about anywhere in the state, whether it’s the Bob Marshall Wilderness Park 300 miles from Upper East Side or the mile-and-a-half trip to Last Chance Gulch. Helena itself is small enough, only about seven miles across, that any destination inside or just out of the city is a quick drive. “It’s a 10-minute drive across town,” says Demaray. The Helena Regional Airport is about three miles away, and St. Peter’s Hospital is about two miles from the neighborhood. Along the south side of the neighborhood, a clutch of fast-food restaurants are located along Prospect Avenue, and a few blocks further down the road people grab breakfast at Steve’s Café. For more shopping and dining, most head to Last Chance Gulch. Helena’s well-trafficked shopping and dining district is about two miles away from Upper East Side. “Helena is a small town, and everyone tends to go to the same places,” says Demaray. People frequent Helena favorites like On Broadway, and popular new restaurants like The Union. “People love on Broadway, it’s been a Helena staple for years,” says Demaray. “The Union just opened, and they’re wonderful.” People also shop in Last Chance Gulch at stores like Great Divide Cyclery, fourOsix and the Montana Book Company. For groceries, Albertson’s or Safeway are both less than half a mile from the neighborhood along Prospect Avenue. Lower East Side has three parks that residents can enjoy. Ramey Park is the neighborhood’s largest, and has multipurpose fields and a running track. Sherron Park has a playground, and Robinson Park has a long walking path through the middle of an open field. The Beattie Street and Bompart Hill trailheads that lead up Mount Ascension are about two miles away to the south, and about the same distance to the west, hikers can head up Mount Helena’s 1906 trail. Lower East Side has a mix of single-family residences, an apartment complex, and some commercial buildings on the neighborhood’s southeast side. There are also restaurants and businesses along Prospect Avenue, which runs along the neighborhood’s south side. Single-family homes in Lower East Side tend to sell for $180,000-$300,000, and duplexes sell for around $500,000. Housing styles in the neighborhood tend to be cottage, bungalow and split levels. “There are a lot of people purchasing homes there and fixing them up,” says Demaray. Students in the area can attend Helena Public Schools, which has a B-plus rating on Niche. Bryant Elementary School has a C rating and Helena Middle School has a B-plus. Helena High School has a B rating and a variety of after-school activities for students to enjoy. It is located in the neighborhood. Helena College University of Montana is also in the neighborhood, with its campus adjacent to Helena High School. Lewis and Clark Fairgrounds, about four miles west of Upper East Side, is the Helena hub for music, rodeo and other events. The Last Chance Stampede and Fair thunders into Helena every July, turning the fairground into a swirl of live music, rodeo performances and antique cars. Other seasonal events like September’s Fall Fest provide activities for people all over Helena year-round.

Lower West Side is a small Helena suburban neighborhood near parks, golf courses and Mount Helena. Homes tend to be well-maintained, and it's known as a well-established community. “People are pretty real and hard-working over here,” says Laurie Koutnik, a Broker/owner with Capital City Realty and 25-year Helena resident. “They spend money to take care of their houses and their families.” Lower West side has access to Capital Transit bus stations along Euclid Avenue. Cars are the primary way to get around the area, whether to the grocery store or park. Interstate 15 is less than a mile from the neighborhood, along with the Helena Regional Airport and St. Peter’s Health, the area’s hospital. Last Chance Gulch is a popular dining area in Helena that's about five miles from Lower West Side. It's the premiere dining district in Helena, and people from all over the city see this as a go to for shopping and going out to eat. The restaurants and shops are set up inside historic buildings that were built along a gulch where gold was first discovered in 1864. Firetower Coffee is popular for an early morning coffee or an afternoon lunch, and Windbag Saloon serves burgers and microbrews out of a historic 1882 Italiante building. Most people grab groceries at Van’s Thriftway on Euclid Avenue, which is less than a mile from most homes in Lower West Side. People in Helena are willing to walk or drive to larger parks and mountainside to enjoy the expansive wilderness in those areas. Spring Meadow Lake State Park is less than a mile from Lower West Side. It's got trails for walkers and joggers, and the lake is popular for kayaking, canoeing and paddleboarding. Green Meadow Country Club is next door to the state park, and offers members an 18-hole course, clubhouse and pool. Mount Helena is a five-minute drive from the neighborhood, and has a series of hiking and mountain biking trails that lead up to the peak. "The bicycle and hiking trails are popular here," says Koutnik. "We're best known for that. The trails are all over." Lower West Side’s suburban streets all have one thing in common – views. Mount Helena is always in full view to the south, and the outline of the Scratchgravel Hills is visible to the north. Properties sell for between $250,000 and $400,000, and most homes are bungalows or ranch-style. There is also a mobile home community on the western side of the neighborhood, where units sell for $40,000 to $70,000. The area is served by Helena Public Schools, which has a B-plus rating on Niche. Hawthorne Elementary School has a B rating and Helena Middle School has a B-plus. Capital High School has a B rating and a variety of after-school activities for students to enjoy like art & photography, green and science clubs. For higher education, Carroll College is a private institution on the neighborhood’s east side. The Lewis and Clark Fairground offers music, rodeo and other events, and Lower West Side is next door. The Last Chance Stampede and Fair thunders into Helena every year, hosting live music, rodeo performances and antique cars. Other events like Fall Fest, gun shows and monster truck rallies provide activities that Lower West Side residents can practically walk to all year round.

About five miles from Helena, the terrain starts to become greener and more forested, and as the elevation climbs and the landscape changes along Interstate 15, Montana City comes into view. It’s no metropolis, and this town center comprises a handful of restaurants and a small commercial building district, but the country around it represents the best parts of living in the state. “I’d say when people think of moving to Montana, they think of trees, views and rock outcroppings – being in the mountains,” says Maria Demaray, a broker with Big Sky Brokers and Montana City resident. “That’s what Montana City is like.” In the hilly, most secluded areas closest to the Elkhorn Mountains, driveways usually have RVs, trucks and SUVs, and the big front yards have garden beds and plenty of trees. Montana City is known as a bedroom community to Helena. “It’s a really short commute,” says Demaray. “It’s 10 minutes to Costco and five to the hospital. You have that out-of-town feel in Montana City.” Montana City and Helena have something of an exchange program for dining out. “People who live in Montana City will go into Helena, and people from Helena will head to Montana City for the drive and to go out to eat,” says Demaray. "A lot of people in Helena go to the Hardware Café, it’s like a destination spot. And on Sundays, people come into Papa Rays to watch sports.” People in Montana City eat at these restaurants too. Still, most head into Helena to buy groceries at Costco or to shop and eat at Last Chance Gulch, which has popular restaurants like On Broadway. Parts of the neighborhood that are closer to Highway 282 tend to have houses that are clustered closer together like a traditional suburb, and homes sell for $400,000 to $600,000. Architectural styles in this area range from ranch styles to split-levels. Properties to the west and south tend to be larger, and houses are more spread out. As the terrain gets steeper, the mountains and hills around Montana City are always in view from the chalet-style homes that are popular in the southeast hills of the neighborhood. These properties sell for $600,000 to $700,000. Mount Ascension is about five miles east of Montana City. This part of a mountain range is what most locals call South Hills. Mount Ascension has various hiking trails that lead up to the peak, where hikers can take in views of Helena and the surrounding valley. The Elkhorn Mountains are practically in homeowner's backyards in the southeast, and hiking and mountain biking are popular pastimes for people in the area. Casey Peak is one of the mountain range's popular hiking areas, and its trailhead is about 10 miles from most homes in Montana City. Students can attend Montana City Elementary School, which has an A rating on Niche and serves kindergarten through grade 8. From there, students can choose to attend A-rated Helena High School or East Helena High School, which has a C-plus. Helena High has a variety of after-school activities such as outdoors, art and ukulele clubs. Interstate 15 runs through the middle of town and provides a route into Helena. The Helena Regional Airport is about 10 miles away, and St. Peter’s Health is about six miles away. Generally, Montanans are prepared to drive hundreds of miles to hike, hunt and fish, and it's part of the culture in Montana City. "We drive a lot in Montana," says Demaray. Montanan's trade what can be a longer commute for miles of land to live on and explore that’s free from noisy roads and too much commercial development.