MONTANA PARK OF THE WEEK: Cooney State Park

Head to Cooney State Park’s reservoir 40 minutes south of Billings to sail, play in the water, camp, and fish. This is the most popular recreation area serving south-central Montana, and it’s always a busy place in the summer!

In 1937 the Montana State Water Conservation Board built the dam along Red Lodge Creek. The reservoir was initially built to store irrigation water during spring snowmelt and runoff from the nearby Beartooth Mountains.

In the decades that followed, the reservoir became an increasingly popular destination for nearby communities, including Billings, Columbus, Red Lodge, Laurel, and others. Cooney Reservoir became a state park in 1970 to preserve and promote the area as a publicly accessible water recreation site.

Today, Cooney Reservoir continues to be popular for day-use visitation from residents of nearby towns and cities. At the same time, its campgrounds, excellent fishing, annual triathlon, and race events as part of the 406 Race Series, and its natural beauty have begun to attract visitors from afar.

The park features good walleye and rainbow trout fishing, abundant boating opportunities, and five campgrounds with 82 campsites and three group use areas available daily around the lake.

Nineteen campsites with electricity are available. The park offers three boat ramps with docks and a fish cleaning station at Red Lodge Arm.

Visit the most popular recreation area serving south-central Montana featuring excellent walleye and rainbow trout fishing, boating, water-skiing and scenic mountain views.

Open 24 hours/day all year.

86 Lake Shore Road

Roberts, MT 59070

Latitude/Longitude:

(45.44200 / -109.20500)