McIlhattan Road has been fully closed between Manley Road and Story Mill Road since August 24, and the City expects it to stay closed until early November. The posted reason is road repair and paving. The bigger reason is the 66 acres next to Snowfill Recreation Area, where the City of Bozeman and Gallatin Valley Land Trust are building Bikefill, a public bike park set against the Bridger Range.
The road work and the park are tied together physically. The City's July construction alert says Knife River is improving McIlhattan Road, and part of that work is moving material from the road corridor onto the Bikefill site. That material will be shaped into the trails and features set out in the Bikefill Park Master Plan, which was approved this spring. The road everyone is detouring around this fall is being turned into the bike park next to the dog park.
Getting to Snowfill until early November
Snowfill is still open during the closure. The route in has changed:
- From downtown, take Manley Road. The City's July alert gives that as the way to reach Snowfill Recreation Area during construction.
- Skip the Story Mill Road end of McIlhattan. Through traffic is closed between Story Mill and Manley.
- Valley View Veterinary Hospital is still reachable. The City's street report says both the hospital and the dog park are accessible from Manley Road.
For the week of September 27, the City still listed the closure as lasting "until early November." That's an estimate, not a fixed reopening date. The project manager named on the street report is Kellen Gamradt. Since the report is updated every week, check it again before you plan the first November walk around a reopened road.
What the crews are actually doing to McIlhattan
The City describes the job as pavement construction, slope remediation, and stormwater management. GVLT's project page is more direct. It calls this stretch of McIlhattan "a dangerous and degraded section" and says the City is paying for the repairs and paving because the road is Bikefill's main access.
Work on the park side started in July. That week, contractors began installing stormwater runoff controls and stabilizing soils so the site could take heavy machinery. While the road work is underway, traffic on McIlhattan along the City Solid Waste property is limited to construction vehicles.
Once the road is finished, the next phase begins. A new parking area and pathway for the park are expected to start after the road improvements are done, and most of the construction is scheduled for 2027. The detour this fall clears the way for the parking lot that comes next.
Thirty-eight acres for dogs, sixty-six for bikes
Snowfill used to be part of the city landfill. The City lists it as a 38-acre open space with more than two miles of gravel trails and over 200 feet of elevation gain from the entrance up to the northeast corner. Bikefill sits on 66 acres of vacant City property between Snowfill and the old city landfill. The bike park is nearly twice the size of the dog park and is planned to carry about three times the trail mileage.
| Snowfill Recreation Area | Bikefill (under construction) | |
|---|---|---|
| Size | 38 acres | 66 acres |
| Trails | Over 2 miles of gravel trails | More than 6 miles planned |
| Primary use | Off-leash dogs | Bikes, all ages and abilities |
| Winter draw | North-facing sledding hill | Not yet open |
| Status as of early October 2026 | Open, reached via Manley Road | Site prep and road work; completion slated for summer/fall 2027 |
Snowfill already has a fenced dog area, open grass, picnic tables, restrooms open year-round, and a sledding hill on its north-facing slope that the City calls popular in winter. GVLT's feature list for Bikefill includes:
- Wide, smooth beginner trails
- Intermediate and advanced flow trails with berms, progressive jump lines, and switchbacks
- Cyclocross singletrack with sand pits, stairs, and barriers
- Adaptive mountain bike trails built for wider wheelbases
- Pump tracks and a dedicated skills area
- Picnic tables, a bike repair station, vault toilets, fencing, and covered gathering pavilions
The park is being designed and built by two firms, Bozeman-based Integrated Trail Lab and Whitefish-based Terraflow. GVLT leads design, construction coordination, and fundraising. The City pays for the road and oversees civil infrastructure. The Dirt Concern, the Bozeman chapter of the Southwest Montana Mountain Bike Association, advises on design and will maintain the technical bike features.
The case for building it next to the dog park
GVLT's development director made the reasoning plain at the June 18 groundbreaking:
"Snowfill provides a space for dogs to be dogs. Bikefill will provide a place for bikers to be bikers." Justin Barth, Gallatin Valley Land Trust
Barth went on to name the trails the project is meant to relieve. A dedicated space for riders, he said, would take pressure off multi-use trails like Peets Hill and Highland Glen and reduce conflict among the hikers, dog walkers, and bird watchers who share them. He told NBC Montana the park would give riders "something for every type of rider right here in Bozeman." Deputy Mayor Douglas Fischer, who also spoke at the ceremony, said Bikefill "gives us all a little room to breathe, relax, and enjoy the outdoors."
Snowfill gets direct improvements out of this too. The plan includes dedicated parking for Bikefill and more parking for Snowfill, along with the repaved McIlhattan Road that both parks will use.
The park's entrance also changed after a public survey. A City and GVLT survey drew more than 1,000 responses and showed strong demand for family and youth features near the entrance. The designers then added an "Upcycle Kids Zone" with a strider-bike pump track, a nature playground, and a skills course. At the groundbreaking, Barth announced a surprise $750,000 anonymous donation to pay for it. According to GVLT, the idea for Bikefill dates back nearly 15 years, and more than 800 community donors have contributed. GVLT's current project page puts the total cost at $6 million.
Birds are being tracked as well. Sacajawea Audubon has done a baseline bird survey of the site and plans to repeat it every year, as it does in other City parks. The goal is to measure how bike traffic, more visitors, and new trees and shrubs affect the birds over time. Anyone birding from Snowfill's upper trails is watching the area that survey covers.
The timeline through next year
None of Bikefill is open yet. Earlier reports floated the chance that some first features could be rideable this fall, but that was always described as possible. GVLT's current target is completion in summer/fall 2027. Here's the sequence from City and GVLT updates:
- June 18, 2026: Groundbreaking with the City of Bozeman and GVLT
- July 2026: Stormwater controls and soil stabilization start on the park site
- August 24 to early November 2026: McIlhattan closed between Manley Road and Story Mill Road
- After the road is finished: Construction starts on the new parking area and pathway
- 2027: Most park construction, with completion slated for summer/fall
This winter, that puts a reopened McIlhattan Road next to an active construction site. Snowfill's own sledding hill is on its north-facing slope, inside the 38 acres the City manages as the dog park. The trail and feature building is on the 66 acres next door. If GVLT's summer/fall 2027 target holds, the old landfill on McIlhattan will have dogs on one side of the fence and bikes on the other, with trails shaped from dirt that used to be part of the road both parks share.
Projects like Bikefill change how a North Bozeman neighborhood works day to day, and we keep track of them for our clients. If you'd like to know what the McIlhattan Road and Story Mill area looks like for your own plans, reach out to Mikey Duquette. Contact us to start your home search or request a free home valuation.
