Stanford is located in Judith Basin County 57 miles southeast of Great Falls between Geyser and Windham at US 87/Hwy 80 near Ackley Lake State Park. Judith Basin Museum and the Utica Museum are nearby, as well as Ackley Lake State Park, at the edge of the Little Belt Mountains.

It was in this area that cowboy artist Charlie Russell took one of his first jobs in Montana as a night wrangler on a Judith Basin cattle drive.