FEATURED TRAIL
Painted Hills
Description
The Painted Hills Trail links Highland Glen and Triple Tree Trail, providing a critical connection for the Main Street to the Mountains trails system. It offers a winding path through meadows, neighborhoods, and agricultural areas, with stunning wildflowers in the spring. This is a public trail through private land, so please stay on the trail, close all gates, and keep dogs leashed.
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🟦 Moderate
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4 miles one way
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Natural surface singletrack
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Walking, hiking, trail running, mountain biking
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The trail can be icy in the winter and muddy in the fall and spring.
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A small parking lot is on Kagy Boulevard just east of Bennett Drive.
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Allowed on-leash
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There are two bike rollovers to provide an alternative around livestock gates.
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The gravel parking lot does not have dedicated accessible parking. The trail has a natural surface and is approximately 24 inches in width, with occasional steep grades and wooden bridge structures.
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Call GVLT about maintenance issues at 541-587-8404.
Trail History
GVLT Founder Chris Boyd had a vision to connect Main Street to the mountains. Two decades after GVLT was created in 1990, this dream was nearly a reality on the south side of Bozeman with one exception—a gap between the first phase of the Painted Hills Trail and Triple Tree Trail. GVLT staff and Board members worked for years to bridge this gap by extending Painted Hills Trail past its long-term end point at McGee Drive. Finally, 28 years after the Main Street to the Mountains concept was conceived, GVLT secured the necessary trail easements to close the gap through State of Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation (DNRC) land, private land, and GVLT-conserved land. Standing on the shoulders of many who worked tirelessly before us, the Painted Hills connector was completed in 2018 and Bozeman’s Main Street was officially connected to the top of Triple Tree Trail in the Gallatin Range.