BILLINGS — A recently launched app now makes discovering a new adventure along the Yellowstone River available right at your fingertips.
The Explore the Yellowstone River app is free to download and shows public access sites, state parks and historic points along the river. The app also shows hazards for boaters, such as bridge piers and irrigation headgates. When opening the app, it asks what sites you are interested in seeing.
“There’s no other river in the United States quite like this Yellowstone River,” said Mike Penfold, one of the founders of the app. “What we’re trying to do is get people to understand that this Yellowstone River is a great asset and that it needs to be protected.”
The app is a project of Our Montana, Inc., a nonprofit promoting the enjoyment and protection of Montana's natural, recreational, and historic resources. Penfold works with Our Montana.
“So, people can download this app and it has all kinds of stuff in it," Penfold said. "You can see where you are on the river and bring it up from an aerial view.”
The GPS app shows public access sites such as launches, camping sites, and city and county parks and how to get there. It also has the option to show cities, towns and museums along the river.
Penfold and his team created the guide app that covers the entirety of the nearly 700 miles of the Yellowstone River.
"We don't know of anything like this in the United States, we're not sure that anybody else has done this. So it's an experiment," Penfold said.
Click here to download the app for Android on Google Play.
Click here to download the app from the Apple store.
