By Avery Edwards MSU EXPONENT
The Bikefill Bike Park project, spearheaded by Gallatin Valley Land Trust (GVLT), is almost fully funded after fifteen years of dreaming. A contractor for the project will be selected on Oct. 17 and construction is slated to begin in spring 2026.
Located between the old Bozeman landfill and Snowfill Park, the project was founded on ideas of community engagement and the renewal of polluted land, according to GVLT Trails Director Matt Parsons.
The 66-acre space will feature five miles of single-track bike trails, with areas for all types of bikers — experienced and new riders alike.
GVLT board member Bill Cochran has been a vocal advocate for Bikefill since the idea for the project formed. “My vision for [Bikefill] is really a complete, world-class facility that can be used by the whole community, from little kids that are on push bikes, to guys on their downhill rigs that want to just huck big jumps,” Cochran said.
According to Parsons, the land that the park will be built on can only be used for open-air recreation due to its proximity to the old landfill. The off-gassing that landfills emit could be dangerous in enclosed spaces such as homes, according to him.
“This space can’t be anything else because of the nature of an old landfill,” said Beth Schwartz, an architecture student and co-president of MSU’s Tau Sigma Delta Honors Society. “You can’t develop homes on it. You can’t grow agriculture on it, and so this is the solution. Why not make it a really awesome place for the community and bikes?”
The land has sat undeveloped for years, but certain individuals in Bozeman have helped bring the Bikefill project to life, according to Parsons. “As a compliment to the folks that are currently in those city roles, they saw the vision and they worked really hard to try and figure out how to make it happen,” he said.
GVLT and MSU have joined forces to design the park’s hub — the center gathering area of the park. The space will feature bike washing stations, repair benches and sun-structures to keep both bikes and bikers happy, according to Parsons. Architecture students from the honors society have proposed three designs for the hub which may be included in the final project. They proposed these plans to a panel with GVLT Trails Program Manager Adam Johnson and local architect Scott Freimuth on Sept. 30.
Schwartz said that this is an exciting opportunity for architecture students to see something that they have worked on actually get constructed. In addition, the society’s two co-presidents are avid bikers who have an interest in the project from a user perspective.
“This definitely stuck out to us because we have that personal connection to bikes, and we know that this is going to be such a critical impact on our community,” said honors society Co-President Octavia Fisher. “We really took that passion into the project.”
GVLT hopes to incorporate all kinds of human leftovers in the park’s construction, including city compost and an old silo, Parsons said. Even the dirt used for trail construction will be mostly site-sourced.
For example, he pointed out an old Streamline bus rusting away in dump storage. “I want to gut that Streamline bus and have people ride through it as a feature,” he said. “What better exemplifies the biker mentality and Bozeman?”
The three main stakeholders in the project are GVLT, the City of Bozeman and the Dirt Concern — the Bozeman chapter of the Southwest Montana Mountain Bike Association. The city will oversee a road improvement project, while GVLT and the Dirt Concern will handle the construction of the bike park, according to Parsons.
The $1.8 million goal is the largest fundraising project GVLT has ever undertaken. There were over 800 private donors to the project. “We had everything — from some kid [who] emptied his piggy bank and gave us $21, his life savings, because he’s like, ‘I want to bike at Bikefill’ — to a few larger gifts in the six-figure range,” Parsons said.
Come November, GVLT and the project’s contractor will begin hosting community input sessions. These meetings will allow community members to provide input on what they would like to see in the park, according to GVLT Trails Program Manager Adam Johnson.
“We really want this to be a community park built by the community and for them,” Parsons said.
