Fish Creek State Park in western Montana, about 12 miles west of Alberton, spans 5,603 acres and is the state’s second-largest park after Makoshika. It joined the state park system in 2010 after Montana acquired the land from The Nature Conservancy. That transfer followed the 2008 Montana Legacy Project, in which The Nature Conservancy and The Trust for Public Land bought 310,000 acres from Plum Creek Timber to conserve former industrial timberlands for public use. Known for Montana’s largest ponderosa pine, the park offers hiking, picnicking, fishing, and mountain biking and represents a recent shift from timber production to protected recreation land.