Trail Overview

This road takes you from Columbia Falls to the Canadian Border. This is a fun drive with lots of great stops, and two entrances to Glacier National Park. The most popular stop is Polebridge, MT, where you can try a huckleberry bear claw from the world famous Polebridge Mercantile. You can also enter Glacier National Park here and access both Kintla Lake and Bowman Lake. The road itself is usually well maintained, but, due to the amount of traffic it receives during the summer, it can become a bit rough with potholes and washboard. From Trail Creek Rd. to the border, the road narrows and become muddy, rutted, and potholed. Even so, most passenger cars should be able to make it to the border.

Photos of North Fork Road

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Difficulty

Besides navigating pothole ruts, this trail is mostly just compacted dirt. There are no major ledges or obstacles to be concerned with.

Technical Rating

Sean Webb

Dec 29, 2025

Open

Lower half is very easy but upper half has a lot of deep water area and rough rode. Easy enough for 4WD but saw some compact cars try it which looked difficult

Noah Hutchison

Dec 15, 2025

Open

Pretty rutted out towards the end, high clearance definitely recommend, river access pretty obstructed due to the flooding. Saw maybe 2 other cars

Madeline Neelans

Dec 06, 2025

Open

PSA, unless you are going ALL THE WAY to the top of the trail, do not come. You will be stopped by officers on your way down and warned about criminal trespassing. Apparently, the first 15 miles of this trail is private property.

Tyler Wilcox

Nov 26, 2025

Open

Didn’t take any pics. Trails clear all the way. A bunch of people going in and out. I went and cleared the tree across t57

H J

Nov 23, 2025

Open

Scenic trail, easy road. A lot of pot holes but nothing too major. A few minor ruts and rocky sections once you get back a ways but nothing crazy. A few other vehicles out there today. Not sure how far this trail goes, seems to go a long ways I went out for a good while before turning around and heading back.

Kristopher Skelton

Nov 11, 2025

Open

Happy to report less garbage than at other times. I don't have anything particular to note about my trip, other than to say there's no way this Trail should be rated a 3. Weyerhaeuser security was out almost at the shooting pit in a 2026 Kia EV sedan. I've driven this trail at least a half dozen times. There are no places where water crosses the trail, and the deepest mud puddle doesn't even come up to the hubs of my 32-in tires. there are no technical sections or sections with large rocks, I routinely see Honda Civics and lowered BMWs on this Trail.

Kendall Constantino

Nov 02, 2025

Open

Drew Cross

Nov 02, 2025

Open

James Fulginiti

Oct 25, 2025

Open

Mix of rain and sunshine. Trail is wet but not really muddy. Potholes are full of water but nothing more than a couple inches.

Tyler Wilcox

Oct 22, 2025

Open

trail is same as it’s always been. There was a burned down car at the range at the end of the trail. which funnily enough had 2 sheriffs and a ramp truck by it when I was leaving after doing t57

Kekoa Loschky

Oct 11, 2025

Open

Xelaxander Skyrien

Sep 27, 2025

Open

Previous report said 'permanently closed', so went to confirm and found it's fully open. Got to the end of the listed trail and kept going another mile before turning back.

Greg S

Sep 19, 2025

Open

Ron L

Sep 13, 2025

Open

Nice morning drive. Dry for the first half for us. It started raining and got muddy.

Ken H

Aug 09, 2025

Open

Recent rain gave me some medium sized puddles, lots of fun to drive through. Trail was fairly busy given the nice weather. Gets hairier the deeper you go.