Bridger Mountains

Total Miles
2.3

Elevation

2,336.92 ft

Duration

0.5 Hours

Technical Rating

6

Moderate

Best Time

Summer, Fall

Trail Overview

Bridger Mountain is 2.4 miles of single track with significant exposure and technical switchbacks, making it a challenging trail. The south end starts at the end of the Middle Cottonwood trail on an easy and flowy path with a few roots and rocks. Watch out for lots of hikers on this section of trail hiking from the Middle Cottonwood Trailhead. It starts to climb up and immediately gets more difficult with switchbacks and exposed side-hilling. It has small embedded rocks, lots of overgrown bushes, and small stream crossings. It starts to get really shelfy, on a narrow exposed hillside. Bigger embedded boulders, jagged rock layers, and roots across the trail during the narrow section make it even more challenging. The switchbacks are tight and may require multiple-point turns. One of them has small ledges and layers of rock in the corner, followed by more off-camber rock layers on the exposed hillside, and is probably the hardest obstacle on the trail. After the last few switchbacks, it continues as a shelfy trail into the Bridger Foothills Trail, which is similar difficulty.

Photos of Bridger Mountains

Bridger Mountains
Bridger Mountains

Difficulty

Bridger Mountain is an upper intermediate difficulty level due to several technical switchbacks, moderate rock ledges, and extreme exposure while side-hilling.

Technical Rating

6

Status Reports

There are no status reports yet for this trail.

Access Description

This is part of a really nice trail system in the Bridger Range within 30 minutes of Bozeman, Montana. The trail system can be accessed from multiple points. There are small parking areas at the bottom of Corbly Gulch, Truman Gulch, Middle Cottonwood, and Ross Pass, as well as a large dirt parking lot at Battle Ridge at the beginning of the Fairy ATV Trail. Most of the trails are seasonally open from mid-June until mid-October. They are multi-use trails, so you will likely see hikers, and keep in mind this is grizzly bear territory.

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