FEATURED TRAIL
Drinking Horse Mountain Trail
Description
Just a 10-minute drive from downtown Bozeman, Drinking Horse Mountain is the most popular of GVLT’s signature trails. Families with young children enjoy the short trek to the bright-orange bridge. Designed with seating so it can serve as an outdoor classroom, the structure makes the perfect creek-side picnic spot. Stronger hikers can continue up the trail—700 vertical feet up, to be exact—for a showstopping view into Bridger Canyon and back across the valley.
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🟦 ♦ Moderate to advanced
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2.1-mile loop
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Natural surface singletrack
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Walking, hiking, trail running (bicycles are prohibited)
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The trail can be icy in the winter and muddy in the fall and spring.
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The parking lot is off Bridger Drive, on your right as you head toward Bridger Canyon.
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Allowed off-leash
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The trail includes benches along the route and a picnic table at the top. There is a covered bridge with seating over Bridger Creek about 0.3 miles into the trail, offering an outdoor classroom setting.
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Drinking Horse Mountain Trail is a natural surface trail with tight turns and steep grades. The gravel parking lot does not have dedicated accessible parking spots.
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Call GVLT about maintenance issues at 406-587-8404.
Trail History
Look left as you drive out of Bridger Canyon and you’ll see a mountain shaped like a horse drinking from a creek. When the owners called GVLT and said they wanted to donate this property, we knew we had an opportunity to create something special. Adjacent to land owned by the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS), with an ascent that offers spectacular views in four directions, the parcel was perfectly positioned for a new trail. GVLT helped facilitate the donation of the land to USFWS and raised money from the community to create two routes to the top and install the locally designed Kevin Mundy Memorial Bridge, named for a beloved Bridger Bowl ski patroller. The trail opened to the public in 2009. All told, it took GVLT and our partners eight years to permit, design, fund, and construct the Drinking Horse Mountain trail, but it was well worth the wait.