USFS National Forest System Trails · Custer Gallatin National Forest · Montana · Updated June 2026
Bangtail Creek (USFS trail 506) is a 7.8 mi trail in Custer Gallatin National Forest, Montana. Mountain bikes are designated as allowed year-round, with Class 1 e-bikes also designated.
Can I bike Bangtail Creek?
| Use | Status | Season on record |
|---|---|---|
| Mountain bike | Allowed | year-round |
| Class 1 e-bike (pedal-assist, 20 mph) | Allowed | Jun–Oct |
| Class 2 e-bike (throttle, 20 mph) | Allowed | Jun–Oct |
| Class 3 e-bike (pedal-assist, 28 mph) | Allowed | Jun–Oct |
Zooming out: across Custer Gallatin National Forest, 98% of rideable trail miles are open to mountain bikes — a Bike Access Grade of A.
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About this trail
In Custer Gallatin National Forest, Montana, Bangtail Creek (USFS trail 506) covers 7.8 mi of National Forest System trail. Everything below comes straight from the US Forest Service National Forest System Trails dataset — length, surface, slope-derived difficulty, and the specific bike and e-bike designations on record — so you can check legality before you load up. Underfoot, the trail is recorded as native material. No grade band is recorded, so a steepness-based difficulty isn't available for this trail. Mountain bikes are allowed, open year-round in the data. The record additionally permits Class 1, Class 2, Class 3 e-bike use, Jun–Oct; recall that Class 1 is pedal-assist, while Class 2 adds a throttle and Class 3 a higher cutoff speed. The route is mapped as USFS Trail Class 4 on the agency's 1-to-5 development scale, where 1 is the most primitive, minimally maintained tread and 5 is the most developed. For day-of certainty on closures or seasonal orders, check directly with the ranger district, since this reflects the USFS data as of the latest refresh.
Frequently asked questions
- Can you mountain bike on Bangtail Creek?
- Yes. Mountain bikes are designated as allowed on Bangtail Creek in Custer Gallatin National Forest, year-round, per USFS data.
- Are e-bikes allowed on Bangtail Creek?
- Class 1, Class 2, Class 3 e-bikes are designated on Bangtail Creek in the USFS data.
- How long is Bangtail Creek?
- Bangtail Creek measures about 7.8 mi in total, summed across its mapped National Forest System segments.
- What is the surface of Bangtail Creek?
- USFS data records the tread surface of Bangtail Creek as native material.
How we read this data
Grade-based difficulty above is the USFS grade (route steepness), not a technical mountain-bike rating — a gentle-grade trail can still be rocky or technical, and vice versa. Bike and e-bike status come verbatim from the USFS managed-use fields for this trail; we never infer access we can't cite. See our methodology for how the dataset is built and what each field means.
Where it is
Approximate location of Custer Gallatin National Forest (USFS trail geometry isn't mapped).
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