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The 8 Best Helicopter Tours in Montana

Jason Gass
Last Updated: February 27th, 2023

Helicopter tours in Montana are a great way to see some of the amazing sites in the state from a completely different perspective.

For many people, the opportunity to explore a favorite National Park, forest, or dramatic mountains usually means by car or on foot. 

Montana offers visitors some of the most dramatic landscapes in the United States, and sure, it’s great to see them from your car or take a rewarding hike, but there really is nothing like experiencing those same views and landscapes from a great helicopter tour.

In this article, we’ll give you our favorite helicopter tours in Montana, and provide you with a bit of information on the services and tours they provide.

The Top 8 Montana Helicopter Tours

1. Yellowstone Helicopters Montana

yellowstone helicopters
Image: USFWS Mountain-Prairie

Yellowstone Heli Tours is one of the best helicopter tours in the Yellowstone area. Helicopter tours in Yellowstone are one of the most popular ways to see parts of the Park that many tourists just don’t get to see. 

This is also a great way to catch some of Yellowstone’s iconic wildlife in their natural places. Yellowstone Helicopter Tours offers a variety of tours depending on what parts of the Park you are interested in seeing. 

One of their best selling points is that they provide helicopter tours at a more affordable rate than their competitors, making helicopter tours a reality for more people. Flights range from an easy 10-minute ride to hour-long adventures.

2. Glacier Aviation Services

glacier aviation services

Glacier Aviation Services runs helicopter and airplane tours from Kalispell, MT to Glacier National Park and all around the Rocky Mountains. Glacier Aviation Services not only provide tours of Glacier National Park, but they are specialists in aerial filming.

This extra bit of knowledge gives their pilots insight into the places around Kalispell and Glacier National Park that other tour companies may not explore. This company has some of the best aircraft in the area, and tours can accommodate 4 to 8 passengers.

Glacier Aviation Services has pre-packaged flights and tours, they work with their knowledgeable travel experts to create a custom helicopter or airplane flight to all of the places that you love the most.

3. Heli-1

heli-1
Image: Heli-1

Heli-1 is a full-service tour company that offers a range of charters and helicopter tours. Located in Kalispell, Heli-1 has a modern fleet of helicopters that are perfect for exploring the Rockies.

Heli-1 offers unique helicopter experiences including heli-fishing and Glacier National Park tours. During the winter, Heli-1 provides heli-skiing options as well.

If helicopter tours aren’t your thing, Heli-1 also provides fishing, camping, and hiking tours around the Kalispel, Whitefish, Missoula, and Bozeman areas.

Their experienced guides will show you the best places to hike, fish, and pitch your tent in some of the most beautiful parts of Montana.

4. Rocky Mountain Rotors

rocky mountain rotors

Rocky Mountain Rotors is a multi-service helicopter company operating in Belgrade, MT. This company provides numerous services, but their most popular is aerial tours and professional helicopter photography tours.

Rocky Mountain Rotors pilots have many years of experience in showing customers some of the most dramatic landscapes in the Yellowstone National Park area. On their sightseeing tours, you enjoy some of Yellowstone’s most famous features from a completely different perspective.

For the photography enthusiast, Rocky Mountain Rotors can provide helicopter tours that allow you to take the best landscape and wildlife photos of your life. 

Photography from their helicopters allows you to experience the beauty and wildlife of the Rocky Mountains and Yellowstone National Park, from a perspective that will create stunning photos and allow you to photograph features that many other visitors will never see.

5. Carisch Helicopters Inc.

carisch helicopters

Mike Carisch, the owner of Carisch Helicopters, spent many years fighting wildfires from the safety of his helicopter.

This experience allowed him to discover some of the best and most scenic places in southern Montana, and within Yellowstone National Park.

Today, Carisch Helicopters provides luxury helicopter tours, chartered flights from Bozeman-Yellowstone Regional Airport, photography tours, and aerial filming.

Carisch Helicopters offer a benefit to visitors that many other helicopter companies don’t provide. They are able to pick you up for your tour from any of the Yellowstone gateway towns including West Yellowstone, Gardiner, and Livingston

6. Central Copters Inc

central copters
Image: Central Copters Inc

Operating in Belgrade, MT, Central Copters, Inc is one of the most popular and well-known helicopter charter companies in Montana.

This helicopter company does much more than provide tours and charter flights, and they offer some unique travel opportunities that many other Helicopter tour companies don’t.

Besides providing helicopter tours of some of the scenic areas around Belgrade and into Yellowstone National Park, Central Copters also specializes in providing guide services and helicopter access to parts of Montana that are only accessible from the air. 

Central Copters can drop you into remote locations thanks to a special recreation permit with the Bureau of Land Management.

This unique opportunity allows you to camp, backpack, or hunt in pristine Montana backcountry that most visitors will never get to experience.

7. Homestead Helicopters Inc.

homestead helicopters
Image: Homestead Helicopters

Homestead Helicopters is another full-service helicopter company. Operating from Missoula, this company is uniquely situated to provide helicopter tours in both Glacier National Park and Yellowstone National Park.

Homestead Helicopters has a full fleet of helicopters that allow you to travel with as many as 6 people in a single helicopter.

Tour options range from a half-hour tour of the wilderness, mountains, and wildlife of the Rattlesnake Wilderness, Snow Bowl, and the mountains around Missoula, to longer tours that start in Missoula and take you to Glacier National Park or Yellowstone National Park. 

These longer tours last between four and seven hours and provide customers with some of the most in-depth views of these iconic national parks.

8. Minuteman Aviation, Inc.

minuteman aviation

Minuteman Aviation is a full-service charter company that provides a range of aircraft charters and tour options.

With some of the most modern aircraft in Montana, and a luxurious flight center located in Missoula, Minuteman Aviation is the perfect place to start for high-end aviation services in Montana.

Minuteman Aviation operates Glacier Heli Tours and has provided visitors with helicopter tours of Glacier National Park for over 40 years.

They offer half-hour and hour-long tours of Glacier National Park, from the air. Their knowledgeable pilots will make sure that you have the best photo opportunities of the park, wildlife, and the Continental Divide.

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About The Author

Jason Gass

Jason Gass is a Colorado based freelance writer and blogger whose goal is to share a good cup of coffee and great stories around a campfire with close friends. When he’s not working, he spends most of his time traveling, searching for the best breweries, and road-tripping in his teardrop trailer with his wife, daughter, and two dogs.

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