Garnet, Montana

A small, honest gold camp in the timber, and the best place on this list to spend a winter night. Garnet had about a thousand residents in its 1890s boom and emptied when the gold ran out, leaving remarkably intact wooden buildings among the pines. In summer it is a gravel drive off Montana Highway 200 and the visitor center is usually open daily. From January to April the road is closed to wheeled vehicles, and the Bureau of Land Management rents two rustic cabins with no electricity or plumbing that you reach on skis, snowshoes or a snowmobile. Book through Recreation.gov, where reservations open on October 1.