USFS National Forest System Trails · Custer Gallatin National Forest · Montana · Updated June 2026
Orchid Gulch (USFS trail 472) is a 3.4 mi trail in Custer Gallatin National Forest, Montana. Mountain-bike use here is accepted but discouraged in USFS data, with Class 1 e-bikes also designated.
Can I bike Orchid Gulch?
| Use | Status | Season on record |
|---|---|---|
| Mountain bike | Accepted but discouraged | — |
| Class 1 e-bike (pedal-assist, 20 mph) | Allowed | Jun–Dec |
| Class 2 e-bike (throttle, 20 mph) | Allowed | Jun–Dec |
| Class 3 e-bike (pedal-assist, 28 mph) | Allowed | Jun–Dec |
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
Orchid Gulch (USFS trail 472) runs 3.4 mi through Custer Gallatin National Forest in Montana. This profile summarizes what the official US Forest Service trail record says about riding it: how long the trail is, what it's built on, how steep the route grades out, and which forms of bike use the agency has designated. USFS records list its surface as native material. No grade band is recorded, so a steepness-based difficulty isn't available for this trail. Note that mountain-bike use here is discouraged in USFS records — confirm with the ranger district before riding. The record additionally permits Class 1, Class 2, Class 3 e-bike use, Jun–Dec; 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. Treat this as a planning reference rather than a live conditions report, and verify any time-sensitive closure or order with the ranger district that manages Custer Gallatin National Forest.
Frequently asked questions
- Can you mountain bike on Orchid Gulch?
- Mountain-bike use on Orchid Gulch is discouraged in USFS records, though Class 1 e-bike use is designated. Confirm current rules with the managing ranger district.
- Are e-bikes allowed on Orchid Gulch?
- Class 1, Class 2, Class 3 e-bikes are designated on Orchid Gulch in the USFS data.
- How long is Orchid Gulch?
- Orchid Gulch measures about 3.4 mi in total, summed across its mapped National Forest System segments.
- What is the surface of Orchid Gulch?
- USFS data records the tread surface of Orchid Gulch 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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