federal Transportation Enhancements pro-
gram (now the Transportation Alternatives
Program) and opened to the public in
2010. Over its 30 miles, the trail weaves
together rolling farmland, world-class fish-
ing destinations such as Bitch Creek, and
aspen stands that make tunnels of green in
the summer months and shimmering gold
in the fall.
The Ashton-Tetonia Trail’s northern ter-
minus is in Ashton, but the corridor—and
opportunities—extend beyond. Some seg-
ments are completed trail, and others, such
as the segment from the Montana state
line to the town of West Yellowstone, are
completely undeveloped. A few sections are
eligible for Federal Lands Access Program
(FLAP) grants, which speaks to the impor-
tance of the corridor in connecting people
to public lands.
Only a sliver of the Greater Yellowstone
Trail will be in Montana, but Treasure State
residents are as enthusiastic as ever about
the potential for inclusion in the regional
trail.
“This has been a long time coming,” says
Kelli Sanders, co-owner of Freeheel and
Wheel, a bike, ski and coffee shop in West
Yellowstone. “It would be such a dream for
the railroad bed to be used, making it biker
friendly, and hopefully skier friendly in the
wintertime.”
While the national parks are already a
powerful tourist draw (more than 3 mil-
lion visitors come to Yellowstone annu-
ally), many see the potential of the Greater
Yellowstone Trail to spread that concen-
trated tourism to other, less-visited parts of
the region. “This will be a destination facil-
ity that helps connect outlying communities
to one another,” says Brian
Schilling, pathways coordina-
tor for Teton County and the
town of Jackson, Wyoming.
“The hope is that someday
the national parks and Teton
County [will] no longer [be]
the outliers when it comes to
world-class tourism destinations, but [will
be] the norms in this regional network.”
The Conservation-Recreation Balance
Schilling notes that the intersection between
conservation and recreation—and how it
relates to trail development—is often on
the minds of residents in the West. Many
people place national parks at the highest
tier of conservation, and Yellowstone, the
nation’s first national park, is the lynch-
pin of the entire ecosystem. “We’ve tried
to find a balance between the impact to
natural resources and the desire to provide
opportunities and convenience for people,”
he says.
In fact, communities within the Greater
Yellowstone Ecosystem have been practicing
a nuanced dance for generations—and with
positive results. The most relevant example
came during construction of the pathway
stretching north from Jackson into Grand
Teton National Park. Running parallel to
the National Elk Refuge, the trail signifi-
cantly opened up whole sections of both the
park and the elk refuge that people hadn’t
really experienced from their cars. “The
southern 6 miles of Grand Teton National
Park were essentially a drive-through for
decades,” Schilling says. “Now, [they’re]
enjoyed by hundreds of people every day
in a really low-impact way. I think that’s a
huge success story.”
He continues, “When I ride that seg-
ment of pathway, I see tons and tons of
birds, more than I do anywhere else in the
valley. Sandhill cranes, trumpeter swans,
Canada geese, 55,000 songbirds that I have
no idea what they are. It’s so unbelievable to
see them all. It’s something that you don’t
really appreciate until you’re out there.”
Moved by the Mountains
“Everything we do [to develop trails] …
continues to feed access to our federal lands,
because we’re surrounded by them in Teton
Valley,” Adams says.
Schilling agrees, adding that this is the
case throughout the Greater Yellowstone
Trail corridor. “The [trail] is a great way to
get people to the national forest, into the
national parks and onto other federal lands.
But even on their way to those recreational
opportunities, they are having a recreational
experience.”
As Young affirms, connecting people
to the wildlands of the West is a prior-
ity for the route. “This is land that we
all
own,” Young says. “From national forest to
[Bureau of Land Management land] to the
parks, it’s ours.”
And the experience of traveling the
Greater Yellowstone Trail has the poten-
tial to turn awestruck visitors into advo-
cates for conservation. On a portion of
pathway in Grand Teton National Park,
a 7-mile segment that runs along the val-
ley floor, paralleling the Teton Range, I
meet Sarah Rice Scott, a bike tourist from
Washington, D.C. Scott made the journey
to northwest Wyoming specifically to ride
the segments of the Greater Yellowstone
Trail that have been completed.
“I look up at these mountains and I just
get it,” Scott says. “This landscape captivates
you. And being able to ride along the base
of the mountains …” she trails off as she
gazes upward at the alpenglow gracing the
tip of the Grand Tetons. “It’s breathtaking.”
“Once you experience this place, you
want to speak up for it,” Scott says, climb-
ing back on her bike for her final miles of
the day.
Katie Harris is the campaigns andmedia coordina-
tor for RTC’s communications team. She is a fre-
quent user and advocate of active transportation
and commutes by bike inWashington,D.C.When
she’s not on her bike, she’s whitewater kayaking
or dreaming of big trout in the rivers of theWest.
The trail traces
through the
lodgepole pine
forests near
Yellowstone
National Park.
Bike tourists exploring the rural route near
Island Park, Idaho
rails
to
trails
u
winter.16
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