Find the top rated birding trails in Montana, whether you're looking for an easy short birding trail or a long birding trail, you'll find what you're looking for. Click on a birding trail below to find trail descriptions, trail maps, photos, and reviews.
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Trail was clear of snow. Lots of sand
1/31/24. I cold but sunny day for a bike ride. The trail is in good condition. I continued to ride another 8 miles on the road towards Belgrade. Saw 4 mature eagles and some deer. Unclear where to park and no restroom. I parked at the school
We looked forward to riding this trail for the views. It was very disappointing, the noise from riding next to the highway was too much for us. The trail is also quite bumpy. We started in Lolo and planned to go to Victor but turned around after 10 miles.
Despite the name NorPac, the trail doesn't always follow the NorPac rail. Sometimes if follows the NorPac access road. Sometimes it follows the forest service roads created on the old NorPac rail line. Sometimes it follows forest service/County roads that don't have anything to do with the rail line. The maps of the route vary greatly. The one here on TrailLink seems as close as it could be. It matches what Garmin put into their biking map in the bike computer. It was easier to follow the Garmin map than any of the others. Most of the signs pointing out the route are gone so if you don't have a bike computer like the Garmin, it can be difficult to figure out where the trail goes in a couple spots like the pass, Taft, and Saltese. The Borax tunnel is collapsing so there is a bypass route. It's easy to find, just turn on the road when the big sign says road closed. You can still ride down to the tunnel to see the Borax tunnel. It's easier to see the collapsing from the bottom end of the tunnel. If you are coming from Mullan, the trail head from Larsen to the Yellowstone trail trailhead is really hard to find. Just get to the sign about the Hale Fishery and turn left. There is a good signage where it crosses the road to the snowmobile parking area/Yellowstone trail. The road was not difficult to ride. There are a lot of potholes but they are easy to get around. There are a couple of places where I'm not sure what the road builders for the forest service were thinking. With the exception of the bypass at the Borax tunnel, it's all easy to bike in both directions. The Borax Tunnel bypass is easy to bike down but going up is a hike-a-bike section. It's not long. The pass going from Mullan to Saltese is confusing if you don't have a map on your bike computer. The actual trail goes through the equipment parking area. The paved road to the left will get you down the pass to Taft, but it is not the trail. The trail swings out to some beautiful scenery, the paved road follows I-90 for the most part so it's noisy and not the best paved road I've ever ridden. At Saltese you can jump up to the Route of the Olympian. Do it at the sign about 1/2 mile before Saltese. Doing the hike-a-bike up the road at the trestle in Saltese is quite the uphill push. There is a sign telling you where to go up to access the upper route. It's a sign for four wheel vehicles, not bikes, so be aware of that. From there to St. Regis, the Route of the Olympian is fairly level, slightly downhill, and follows the St. Regis river for the most part. I parked at Taft and road up and over to Mullan so the trail made more sense. Then I biked back to St. Regis. 64 miles total but two beautiful trails. Neither trail had much traffic but they did have some so keep an eye out. In 64 miles I saw three ATVs and one group of six dirt bikes. Not much at all for that distance. I did ride on a Sunday so I expected more. I don't know how to post photos so some of this would be more clear. It was quite enjoyable and I'll likely do it again next year.
Lots of fun art along the trail(at least in the section we rode)
Wonderful trail, but who is going to take care of the weeds along it? Now that they have gone to seed the problem will get worse. ¿
Beautiful trail with gorgeous scenery. There are a few areas that are bumpy but fine if you aren’t riding a road bike.
We rode the trails from the fair grounds through town and west for a total of 15 miles one way. We rode them on drop bar bills with 700x32c tires with tubes and some tread in drop bar bikes (no suspension). We rode US-101 a short distance and got on the trail near the livestock auction area just across from the fairgrounds. Initially it was small gravel and the tires were fine. There were some short wooden bridges and there were bumps at each bridge. I would guess after about a mile the trail was paved with a very nice surface. That continued through town for about 3 miles. There were a number of street crossings. Most were no-traffic residential areas. One was Main Street, which ha
The trail runs through residential area. Your next a small fast water moving canal for a small part of trail. Goes by park. Newer cement. Nice dog walking but not very scenic.
This trail had been on my bucket list since we rode down to the tunnel from the Hiawatha trailhead in 2017. That was at the tail end of our trip and we had run out of time to explore. Today we finally got to do at least part of the Olympian on our gravel tandem. We parked in Haugan and rode up to East Portal, then back down past Haugan about two miles, stopping for ice cream at the colorful trailer with the M&M's theme along the trail back at Haugan. Having sampled it six years ago and being experienced gravel riders, we pretty much knew what to expect in terms of difficulty and trail characteristics. The trail was in good shape overall; the section up to Saltese was a little chunkier than north of Saltese but we easily managed with our tubeless Maxxis Ramblers, 700x50c. The southern section also had numerous low spots, not really potholes, but they do give you a good jolt if you hit them wrong. They were pretty easy to steer around in most cases. The short section just north of Saltese trestle up to the new NORPAC trail access road is a different texture of rock--coarser and a little bigger--and it shook the bike pretty noticeably but again, very manageable. Speaking of Saltese trestle, it seems to be in pretty good shape; the gravel is deeper than on the trail itself but it's easily rideable. Glad to hear of the preservation efforts the locals have undertaken there, I'd say it looks succesful. Dominion Creek Trestle is just breathtaking and it's my new favorite. So peaceful and scenic. Tunnel 19 was a bit muddy at the south entrance so we elected to walk our bike through it both ways just to try and stay a bit cleaner. After reaching East Portal and resting for a short time we bombed back downhill and went past Haugan about 2 miles just because we felt like it. Along the way we encountered several ATV's, all of which were very courteous to us and very friendly. We also met another local couple riding their mountain bikes on the trail and had a nice visit with them as well. All in all, a great day on a fabulously scenic trail! Next trip we will do the remainder down to St. Regis.
We spent a day exploring the trails in this system, riding out to the Headwaters park, through the pond area, and along the edge of town and back. The area is stunningly beautiful, the town is full of friendly people (be sure to stop for lunch and pie at the Iron Horse in Three Forks!), and we could not have asked for a more beautiful day of riding. There are several good maps along the trail, but a few more would be helpful, especially since it's not just one trail but several that link up. We're giving this 5 stars because the scenery is so gorgeous, but the trail surface deserves a 3 or 4; some sections are smooth asphalt but some have bone-jarring cracks that need to be filled. Still-- we absolutely loved our day on this trail and can't believe we didn't see more people using it. We came to Three Forks specifically to ride this trail system, and we were not disappointed.
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