Harrell Forest Community Trails Are Open to the Public!
(photo: Casey Kreider | Daily Inter Lake)
We are delighted to announce that the trails are officially open! Check them out at 1017 Bigfork Stage Road in Bigfork.
These trails are designed to be family friendly and as inclusive as possible, while protecting the natural resources that are protected under a conservation easement. Please be outside kind and respect the rules and etiquette of the property for the safety and enjoyment of all. Please note that the trails are for nonmotorized use only (hiking and biking, but no e-bikes). To protect our natural resources and the safety of all visitors, we kindly ask that you refrain from bringing horses, camping, or parking overnight in this area. Please also keep your dogs on a leash to ensure the well-being of all wildlife and fellow visitors. Thank you for your cooperation in keeping this area beautiful and enjoyable for everyone.
A series of stacked loop trails offer a variety of options. The Swan Hill Trail to Birch Loop is a 2.7 mile route, round-trip, with 300 feet of elevation gain. It encompasses lots of flowy switchbacks and a gentle loop through a birch grove. The entire trail, encompassing the Birch Loop on the way up, River View Trail and Summit Loop is a 7-mile round-trip route, with 750 feet of elevation gain. This route offers beautiful views of Flathead Lake, the Swan River, Swan Lake and Big Mountain, with relatively gentle loops near the top of Swan Hill.
It has been a journey of collaboration! Together with our partners, The Trust for Public Land and Montana Land Reliance, a collective dream of providing a trail system on 238 acres of protected land has come to fruition. Here’s a bit about how it all happened:
Just to the northeast of Bigfork, on Swan Hill, lies an undeveloped tract of land with rich history, and holding big plans for the community. Originally part of the Gates homestead, where Eva Gates Preserves were first created and sold, the parcel was held under a series of ownerships. The Knievel family (of Evel Knievel fame) owned the property for a while, according to neighborhood lore. Part of it nearly became a 17-unit subdivision before the economic downturn of 2008. Renowned longtime Bigfork resident, passionate conservationist and woodworker, Jack Whitney and his wife, Ursula, placed a conservation easement on the southern portion of the property in the early 2000’s. The most recent landowners had a lofty vision for this area that laid the groundwork for a community trail system, currently under construction. Alan Horn and Cindy Harrell-Horn have deep roots in the community of Bigfork, so when they thought about parting with the property, they decided they would give back to the community. In an act of benevolence, Horn and Harrell-Horn recently donated the 238-acre parcel to the Trust for Public Land, with the intention of providing public access and community benefit.
Conservation has always been at the forefront of the vision for the project. When the Trust for Public Land took ownership, the intention was to transfer the property to Flathead Land Trust for local management with a conservation focus. Both entities collaborated with The Montana Land Reliance to place a conservation easement on the remaining portion of the property. The conservation easement, along with ownership transfer to Flathead Land Trust, came to fruition at the end of 2022. Under this legal agreement, the parcel can never be further developed, the conservation values will be forever protected, and the property will remain available for public education and recreation long into the future.
The process of designing and building a trail system takes a village, and fortunately, the village of the Flathead Valley has accrued plentiful experience in this realm. Forestoration, Inc. of Whitefish designed 4.5 miles of stacked loop trails for Harrell Forest, occasionally overlooking Flathead Lake, the Swan Mountains and Swan River. Montana Made Trails built the beautiful flowy trail system. JD Thinning, Inc. constructed trailhead amenities near the southwestern corner of the property, creating a 23-space parking lot for drive-in access to the trails. All is came together for a Grand Opening Celebration on September 22, 2023.
Accessibility is at the heart of Harrell Forest and the trails are designed to be family-friendly with safety at the forefront. DREAM Adaptive Recreation has pretested some trails with three-wheeled adaptive mountain bikes and plans to hold individual lessons and group rides at Harrell Forest. The trails will be accessible to hikers and mountain bikers, but due to the relatively small acreage the trail system will not be able to accommodate horses. Consistent with the conservation focus of the property, the terms of the conservation easement and funding requirements, motorized vehicles will not be allowed.
The vision for the project has always centered on community and input from community members has been and continues to be an integral part of the planning process. An advisory committee of multiple community members, as well as representatives from Forestoration, Montana Access Project, Trust for Public Land, The Montana Land Reliance and Flathead Land Trust, share their opinions and perspectives, areas of concern, and provide recommendations to guide decision-making and management of the property.
The Harrell Forest logo, created by Highline Design Co., beautifully depicts the connectivity of the project partners and connection to the community.
Funding of a project of this size also takes a village and in the spring of 2022, project partners secured two major grants through the Montana Recreational Trails Program (RTP) and the Montana Trail Stewardship Grant Program (MTSGP). In addition, Flathead Land Trust raised $40,000 from many generous donors through Whitefish Community Foundation’s Great Fish Community Challenge in the summer of 2022.
The Bigfork Harrell Forest Trails are mutually beneficial for the community and visitors to the area, as well as for the environment. The project will provide public access, extraordinary front county recreational opportunities, as well as protection and landscape connectivity for wildlife species such as whitetail deer, turkey and black bear. It has been a long process of planning and collaboration, but by the fall of this year, we plan for the Harrell Forest Trails to be open for everyone to enjoy.
We are grateful to all involved in making this dream a reality, including J Designs and Eclipse Engineering, who donated in-kind services!