Red Lodge Mountain's summer page now opens with three words in capital letters: closed for the season. The scenic lift rides are done. The Main Lodge and the Bierstube won't open until the first day of ski season. On Broadway, Souper Sandwich Cellar came back on October 27 from a two-week break with shorter hours, open Tuesday through Saturday from 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Still, the next five weeks are booked solid. Two nonprofits a few blocks apart did most of the booking. The Carbon County Historical Society & Museum at 224 Broadway Avenue North runs Halloween week and the start of November. The Carbon County Arts Guild & Depot Gallery takes over for the rest of the month. Then the Christmas Stroll arrives and the winter calendar starts. If you live here, the shoulder season has a real schedule. You just won't find it on the mountain's website.

The Museum Takes Four of the Next Five Days, Starting Tonight

This post goes up on Thursday, October 29, the opening night of the museum's Haunted House. The museum bills it as "Night at the Museum," and the theme is a walk through the Dark Woods. It runs Thursday and Friday from 6 to 8 p.m. and Saturday from 4 to 6 p.m. Admission is $5, and kids 5 and under get in free.

On Halloween afternoon the same building hosts the Dead Lodge Boo Bash, which starts at 3 p.m. Kids trick-or-treat from decorated vehicles parked outside, and the best-decorated vehicles win prizes. If you want to enter a car or truck, the museum asks you to register ahead of time at 406-740-2559.

Two days later, on Monday, November 2, the museum shifts to something quieter. Its Day of the Dead evening runs from 6 to 8:30 p.m. and has three parts:

• Actors from the Red Lodge Theater Company read abridged selections from David Eagleman's Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlife. The museum promises it's "funnier than you think."
• You've Had Your Six!, a group of local musicians playing original songs, provides live music.
• A remembrance altar, or ofrenda, where guests can bring a photo of a loved one who has passed, along with their favorite foods, drinks or personal items.

Admission is $5 for everyone.

Here's the whole run in one place:

Three of the five dates fall on weeknights, and no listed ticket costs more than $5. They're set up for people who are already in town on a Monday in November. The last museum date on the list is local history. Jeff McNeish's talk on the Smith Mine Disaster, part of the museum's speaker series, is Thursday, November 12, from 5 to 6 p.m.

Then the Depot Gallery Takes November

When the museum's dates thin out, the Arts Guild's pick up. The Guild's current show is Somewhere Out There: Works by the Beartooth Plein Air Society, which opened October 10 and closes Sunday, November 15. That leaves a little over two weeks after this post to see paintings of the Beartooths before the walls change.

The Guild's November is a mix of shows and hands-on sessions:

1. Open Studio: Still Life Drawing, Sunday, November 1, 2 to 4 p.m.
2. Watercolor Painting with Lance Johnson, Saturday, November 7, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Registration opens through the Guild's calendar.
3. Open Studio: Figure Drawing, Sunday, November 15, 2 to 4 p.m., the same day Somewhere Out There closes.
4. Two new shows open Thursday, November 19. Hip 2B Square: works by CCAG Members and the 6x6 Mystery Artist Community Show both run through December 27.
5. 6x6 Mystery Artist Reveal Party and Sale, Saturday, November 21, 4 to 6 p.m.

The two shows that open November 19 are also the shows that will be up during the Christmas Stroll, which is about two weeks later. Their run reaches past the holidays to December 27, after the busiest weekend downtown is over. With these dates, the Guild's member and community shows are already on the walls before the holiday crowds arrive, and they stay up afterward.

The Smaller Fixtures That Fill the Weekdays

Away from those two calendars, a couple of regular schedules keep running. The Red Lodge Carnegie Library, at 8th Street and Broadway, holds Storytime & Playtime downstairs at 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday, November 4, November 18, November 25 and December 2. The December 2 session is two days before the Stroll.

Outside town, Yellowstone Wildlife Sanctuary moves to its November and December hours, Friday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., with last admission at 3:30. The Sanctuary calls fall "the best time to visit the animals" because they're more active in the cold, and it notes that they "LOVE the snow." It's closed Christmas Day. On a quiet November weekend, that's one of the few places in the area open on a set schedule.

The Mountain's One Hard Deadline Lands This Weekend

Red Lodge Mountain isn't running yet, but it does have a date on this week's calendar. Season pass prices change on November 1, the morning after the Boo Bash. Here's what the resort's 2026/27 pass page shows, with ages counted as of November 15, 2026:

The adult pass goes up $200 and the senior pass goes up $100. The young adult and teen passes go up only $10 each. A household with two adults, one teen and one child pays $2,706 at the current prices and $3,146 starting Sunday. That's a $440 difference set by one calendar date.

The resort also lists two new partner resorts for 2026/27. Kelly Canyon Resort comes with two free days and Monarch Mountain with three. Pass terms and partner-day details are on Red Lodge Mountain's season pass page, which is the place to confirm them before you buy.

There's no opening day to circle yet. Visit Montana says the mountain typically opens the Friday after Thanksgiving, which this year would be November 27, but snow sets the actual date.

December 4 Is When the Calendars Change Hands

The Christmas Stroll, on Friday and Saturday, December 4 and 5, closes out the in-between weeks. Red Lodge's official event page describes two evenings when downtown shops stay open late with goodies and treats until around 9. The page's overview puts the Blade Parade at 5 p.m., but the day-by-day schedules for both Friday and Saturday list it at 6 p.m., and both schedules are marked tentative. Here's Friday as currently posted:

• Children's Christmas Story Time at Beartooth Books, 3 p.m. Friday.
• Broadway clears at 4 p.m. Cars need to be moved off Broadway from 8th to 14th Street.
• Community Lantern Walk. Meet at 5:15 in front of the library, with the walk down Broadway listed at 5:30, just ahead of the parade. You can bring your own lantern.
• Blade Parade, listed at 6 p.m. The parade heads south from the library, and prizes go to decorated vehicles and people equipped with snow-removal blades. Entrants meet at the library at 5:15 p.m.
• Wagon and sleigh rides, horse-drawn, from 6:30 to 8:30.

The event page sums up the weekend as "Ski, Stroll, & Stay the night." That line looks ahead to the winter season taking over the calendar. Before the stroll, though, the town's schedule runs from the museum's Dark Woods to the Depot Gallery's 6x6 reveal, with nothing on the museum's list priced above $5. Decorated vehicles bookend it, with trick-or-treating from them at the museum on October 31 and the Blade Parade rolling south from the library on December 4.

If you'd like a local's take on how Red Lodge changes between seasons, from a quiet November to a full ski winter, Huskey Real Estate Group is happy to talk it through. Schedule a Consultation and we'll share what we see from Billings to the Beartooths.