New trail to connect West Bozeman to the “M”

The newly-designated Raptor Route will link together a preexisting patchwork of unconnected trails from West Bozeman to Mount Baldy, providing pedestrians and bikers with a safer alternative to traversing the city. 

Gallatin Valley Land Trust (GVLT), the local nonprofit spearheading the project, is collaborating with nearby homeowner’s associations and the city to have most of the trail — an estimated eight-mile stretch — completed by summer.

 “We’re giving people in West Bozeman the ability to access their public lands,” GVLT’s Trails Director Matt Parsons said. “This is the next chapter in Main Street to the Mountains,” he continued, in reference to the last major trails project completed by GVLT in 2019 which directly connects Main Street to the Bridgers in the north and Triple Tree in the south.

 GVLT aims to make Bozeman an “active transport” city, where people can safely navigate without an automobile, according to transportation plans put out by the city of Bozeman. This means having protected intersections, accessible footpaths away from the street and easy-to-read signage. Plans are already underway to install a crosswalk where the Raptor Route intersects with Durston that is expected to be completed this coming May, according to the GVLT website.

 Parsons, who previously lived in West Bozeman and often utilized the existing paths as a trail runner, described them as “disconnected, disjointed and dead-ended” and as “a spaghetti of trails.”

He and the GVLT plan to fill in the gaps that divide them to create a continuous circuit through neighborhoods, commercial centers and parks. Much of the trail will be dirt and gravel, but will become more urban as it approaches 19th Ave., according to Parsons.

Although the GVLT estimates the Raptor Route will be finished by summer, Parsons said they will only consider it fully complete once the adequate signage is in place from East to West. According to Parsons, “[there] are no signs in West Bozeman. People don’t know there are trails there. Signage is glue. The route becomes a route when it’s signed.”

The Raptor Route is being built on the heels of the city’s pedestrian safety initiative, dubbed the Streets Are For Everyone (SAFE) plan, initiated in the spring of 2023, according to the City of Bozeman website. In the final stages of the SAFE plan, which wrapped up in Jan. 2024, the Transportation & Engineering division of the city made “key safety updates to the city’s engineering standards” such as “narrower lane widths” and “shared use paths,” according to the City of Bozeman website. 

As GVLT approaches 100 miles of developed trails across Gallatin Valley, Parsons said plans are underway for “something special” as soon as the current mileage is assessed. 

For those interested in volunteering with GVLT, sign up for their newsletter on their website or email them at trailambassador@gvlt.org to be a trail ambassador for the 2024 season. If you want to learn more about current trail projects, sign up for volunteer work or support GVLT, visit their website, https://gvlt.org/.