Copper City Bike Trails

Overview
While the mountain trails right around Bozeman can be snow-bound or mud-laden in spring and fall, there's a magical place just down the road toward where the singletrack is dry and the trails gleam with shining copper. Since 2019, Copper City's serpentine trail system has become a shoulder-season must-ride, and provides well-maintained singletrack for beginner and expert riders alike.

Southwest Montana Mountain Bike Association (SWMMBA) developed these trails from 2017-2019, which include beginner-friendly rides, technical ridges, flowy meanders, and downhill-only terrain across its 17-plus miles of trail, as well as a skills park and pump track that cater to all ages and abilities.

Anyone looking to extend their stay can take advantage of Copper City's dispersed camping located on secondary roads, provided they dispose of their waste properly by packing it out.

Beginner Trails

Green Eagle Loop offers 3 miles of beginner-friendly singletrack, ascending and descending just 276 feet along the scenic route. This wide, low-angle trail with smooth dirt and nice berms passes through sagebrush and grassland with excellent visibility, but expect other recreationists traveling in either direction.

There's also a skills park and pump track right off the parking lot for newbies and tykes to play and practice.

Cross-Country Rides

From the Green Eagle Loop, riders can access a wide variety of trails of varying distance and difficulty in the hills. The Upper and Lower Iron Ore, Mother Lode, Boss Tweed, and Destroying Angel trails offer more strenuous cross-country biking on miles of singletrack. Some sections of these trails are extremely rocky, so your technical skills will surely be tested. But there's plenty of flow to be found in them hills.

Downhill Trails

For the emboldened, seasoned, and thrill-seeking rider, Copper City boasts a couple gnarly, double-black diamond downhill trails. Neversweat, Trident, and the forebodingly-named Merry Widow are steep, biker-only trails with no exits or rest stops until you reach the bottom. If you want to do laps on any trails, don't walk back up the trail. Instead, climb up on one of the cross-country trails.

Directions
Get on I-90 and cruise west until you hit the Hwy. 287 exit. Take it and head north until just past the Dolan horses on your left. At the top of the rise beyond the horses, there's a quick right-hand turn onto Copper City Rd. Bump along the dirt until you reach the large parking lot.