Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks draw thousands of hikers to Montana, many of them traveling the Continental Divide Trail as it passes through both parks along the state’s western border.
But what about the rest of the state? The grasslands of eastern Montana. The Missouri Breaks.
The Montana Trail will connect all of them, says Race Bannon, president of the Montana Trail 406 Association. Rather than build new trails, the group will connect about 1,500 miles of existing trails that crisscross Montana from east to west.
The trail will be for hikers, bikepackers, horseback riders, and paddlers. Bird watching, rivers and streams for fishing, and abundant wildflowers are expected to draw people to the trail.
The MT406, as the group is known, is working with onX to create a trail guide app. About 80 percent of the trail has been surveyed for the app.
Race expects the entire trail will be documented by March, in time for Montana’s hiking season. The app will have GPS data for the trail, and information about towns and camping. The information will also be on a website, and later put into a printed guidebook.
The idea for the Montana Trail began in 2015 when Race and other hikers began talking about linking the many trails in Montana into a long-distance route that would connect 33 million acres of federal and state public lands. They formed the MT406, incorporating Montana’s 406 area code and a common way that Montanans refer to their state.
Race expects that trail users will shop for resupplies, eat at restaurants, and stay in overnight lodging at small towns along the trail.
A 2019 report by Headwaters Economics, a nonprofit land management consultant based in Montana, showed that 88% of business owners within gateway communities of the Continental Divide Trail noticed growth in businesses, as well as in their communities, due to the CDT since 2014.
And a joint resolution of the Montana Senate and House of Representatives supporting the trail says that the state’s outdoor industry generates more than $7 billion annually, including supporting 10% of all Montana jobs.
The resolution languished in the most recent legislative session, but Race hopes to get it approved in the next session.
Creating a true multi-use trail is difficult, Race says, because bicycles are not allowed in wilderness areas. As a result the group is focusing first on foot travel, with bike routes bypassing the wilderness areas to come later.
The trail includes 538 miles of the Continental Divide Trail, 400 miles of the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, and 149 miles of the Upper Missouri National Wild and Scenic River from Fort Benton to the James Kipp Recreation Area.
Additionally, the group is hoping to work with Indigenous people in eastern Montana to be able to route the trail across their lands.
Race sees the new trail as an outlet for the surge in hikers since the Covid pandemic began. The trail will bring people to less-visited parts of the state, and help economies in small towns, he says.
And that, he says, can only benefit Montana.