Fort Benton is on US Highway 87 in north central Montana. The closest airport is in Great Falls, about 42 miles away. You can float the Upper Missouri from May through September.
Most people plan trips from one to seven days.
The current was 5-7 mph during our float. We rented canoes but packed our own food and camping gear. I patted a five-gallon water jug, reassuring myself that unlike Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, who first explored this isolated stretch in 1805, we wouldn't have to drink river water. We were floating Montana's National Wild and Scenic Upper Missouri River. It's the single best way to experience places the Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery described in their journals.