Find the top rated geocaching trails in Montana, whether you're looking for an easy short geocaching trail or a long geocaching trail, you'll find what you're looking for. Click on a geocaching trail below to find trail descriptions, trail maps, photos, and reviews.
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Good for walking running or riding!
Perfect for a family ride. Took 5 of us about an hour to go from St Mary Rd in the Heights to the Yellowstone River parking lot just past the 90 overpass and back. Ages 13-49 were on the trip. We weren’t pushing it at all.
2 9% grades but Ebikes are the way to go. Beautiful area and beautiful homes
For a trail with so much potential, this fell far short of expectations. Passes through beautiful scenery between a riverfront State Park, and cute little town.
Has not been given the attention it deserves. Asphalt surface cracked with painful gullies and erosions, NO signage. We rode back on a road with light traffic, but no shoulder and 70 mph speed limit to avoid having to ride this surface again.
Went from Saltese to Lookout Pass one day and Lookout Pass to Mullan the following day. Take a map. Only saw three signs indicating Northern Pacific Trail and they were on the Idaho side, very little help. The Borax tunnel is closed but a steep bypass route is available, hike-a-bike up this steep road. Again this is a multi-use trail, 10 ATVs passed by, campers along the trail, Forest Service truck and semi with excavator on a trailer came down the trail, plus a few bikers encountered on the trail. Saw a number of deer, including a very nice buck. Trail condition was good and easy enough to ride. On the Idaho side a couple mile section of the trail has a 4% grade, the norm is 2%. That section was easy to coast down with a little more effort to come up but still not terrible. The trail map shows the trail ending at the fish hatchery but the description talks about starting in Mullan. Estimate the overall trail length from Saltese to Mullan to be close to 28 miles. Don’t expect trail signage, take a map, and read the trail description details.
This completed my ride of the Montana section of the Great American Rail Trail. Rode from St. Regis to the East Portal of the Route of the Hiawatha and back down. Was a long day of riding, estimated 65 miles. This is a multi-use trail, so basically it is a gravel/dirt road with vehicle access on 90% or better of the route. Some vehicles were encountered on the return trip and two other bike groups were going west as I was coming back down. There is some trail signage, however at the 2.5 mile mark there was a confusing intersection, look for the ATV bypass sign and follow. The remainder of the trail was generally straight forward to follow. A few deer and one moose calf were seen on the trail. Overall the trail condition was good with a few sections of loose gravel but easy enough to get through. Being rail-to-trail the grade was a steady but gradual climb to the finish.
Nice trail following along the active rail tracks for the first couple miles. I started at mile 0 and went for about 3.5 miles, just a short distance past the Bitterroot River crossing (TrailLink map doesn’t show this as continuous but it is). At this point the trail is getting out of town. There are a number of street crossings and since it was early Sunday morning not a lot of traffic. Some of the crossings have signals. Drivers stopped when they saw a bike coming without having to activate signals. Trail is wide and nicely paved.
Rode this trail in June, 2021 as part of the 300k Bitterroot Loop. Loop riders head East on the Coeur D'Alene and Nor Pac trails, then turn around & head back West on the Hiawatha Trail. You can turn around at Taft or Saltese, but we chose to turn around at Haugan, where there was lodging & a restaurant available. Riding East from Lookout Pass, we left the Nor Pac 1/2 mile before Saltese, making the right turn at the sign marked "upper grade." This takes you to the Olympian Trail. 1/2 mile East of this connection, there is a RR bridge with loose gravel, holes in the deck, and no side railings -- better to walk the bikes across. East of this bridge, the surface is excellent -- packed dirt with no large rocks, no ruts, no soft sand, and very few potholes. It could be muddy after a rain, but for us it was a perfect surface, easily ridable on our road bikes with 35mm tires. Clearly the surface has been graded and filled in since the 2019 reviews were posted. Cannot say what the surface is like East of Haugan.
The next morning we left Haugan and headed back (West), continuing on the Olympian beyond the Nor Pac turnoff in Saltese. The surface continued to be excellent all the way to the Hiawatha trail. Scenery was awesome, saw some wildlife, and the Dominion Trestle was impressive -- you are riding at treetop level. The short tunnel just past the Trestle had a muddy surface, so better to walk the bikes there.
Rode the Nor Pac Trail in June, 2021 as second leg of the 300k Bitterroot Loop. The signs showing the connection from the Coeur D'Alene trail have been swiped, here is the route we took: At the Coeur D'Alene trailhead in Mullan, continue East on River, which turns into Friday, which turns into Larson. 1 1/2 miles from the Coeur D'Alene trailhead bear left to stay on Larson (not right to WIllow Creek). After another 1 3/4 miles on Larson, turn right onto Yellowstone (no street sign). Go up the hill and the Nor Pac is at the top -- take a sharp right onto the trail. After 2 1/2 miles on the Nor Pac, take a 180 turn to the left to stay on the Nor Pac (the railroad must have had a switchback here).
The Nor Pac surface is packed dirt with no soft sand. There are some small rocks, ruts, and potholes, but you can steer around them. I was able to ride it without difficulty using a road bike (gravel bike design) with 35 mm tires. Beautiful scenery of forest and mountains climbing up to Lookout Pass. Snacks available at the Lookout Pass ski area. I would have given this trail 5 stars, except that the dirt surface will be muddy after a rain.
As others have reported, the Borax Tunnel on the Montana side is closed, with no ridable detour. We rode the 5 miles from Lookout Pass to Taft on I-90, which is legal in Montana. Yes, there is truck traffic, but there is a wide paved shoulder for the bikes. We have rear flashers & rear view mirrors & are comfortable riding on highway shoulders at home, so for us it was not a problem. We exited at Taft & jumped back on the Nor Pac to Saltese. The trail runs alongside I-90 between Taft and Saltese.
If you are going to stop at the Old Montana bar in Saltese for lunch, ride all the way to the end of the NorPac at the I-90 Saltese exit. If continuing East beyond Saltese, turn right off the NorPac 1/2 mile before Saltese and climb up the hillside to the Olympian Trail. The turnoff is marked with a sign pointing to the "upper grade" which means the Olympian Trail. Saltese has a motel & dinner is available, but not breakfast. So we continued on the Olympian Trail to Haugan & stayed there.
This trail will take you to the top of Butte, to the Memorial, and while it is very steep, it is worth it to take in the views. There are nice little signs along the way which talk about the history of mining and Butte. At the bottom, it ends at the Museum of Mining, which is a great underground tour.
While this isn’t the most scenic trail, it is a nice way to get east to west, across town. While it is mostly a residential trail, it is well paved and there are good signs to show you the way. It does cross several streets. It will connect up with the trail that runs along the river, and get you to the University.
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