Gravel Ride Big Sky Montana

We were out in Montana to race the Big Mountain Enduro Big Sky. After the race was over we decided to stay a few extra days to check out more of what Big Sky had to offer. We found Buck Ridge on trail forks and checked it out. On this day we wanted to only ride for only 2hr. Yet this trail keeps going if you wanted to make a longer ride. The scenery on this ride was amazing taking us up to 9,500 ft above sea level.

Buck Ridge Gravel Ride Stats

Check out my strava for all the information about our ride!

Parking

Here is a map to the fire road that will lead you to the trail head. The first few miles of this road everything off the road is private property. So I wouldn’t recommend parking there. We drove to where the private property ened and park off the road. Then continued up the road on bike to the trail head. The road is very rocky but largely in good condition. A standard road car might have some issues on the road at some point but no problem for anything like a Subaru.

Our ride

Buck ridge Big Sky Montana Gravel ride

Big Sky is Bear County

It’s bear county in Big Sky so make sure to do your research about bear safety. I did some research while we were here and found that the effectiveness of bear mace isn’t what I thought it would be. What I found is that it is effective in deterring curious bears but very ineffective at stopping aggressive bears.

Be proactive in preventing an encounter with a bear:

Make noise

Carry a “bear bell”

Don’t ride solo

From the research I did there have been few or non recorded bear attacks on groups of more than 2 people.