Pinesdale is nestled between the Bitterroot River and the Bitterroot Mountain Range. St. Mary's Mission and Fort Owen are two of Montana's earliest settlements, to the north. Pinesdale also borders the Selway Bitterroot Wilderness, which is a 1.3 million-acre wilderness that straddles the Continental Divide on Montana's western border with Idaho. Several canyons take hikers and horseback riders to high mountain lakes to see abundant wildlife.
Pinesdale is located in western Montana, in the Bitterroot Valley on US Highway 93, north of Hamilton.