Badger Pass - Forest Road Loop

Dogs Off-leash

E-Bikes Allowed

Features Views

Getting there: Take Hwy 278 west from I-15 just south of Dillon, Mt. Continue to the top of Badger Pass and park at the Taylor Creek Rd pullout. Taylor Creek Rd will be at the very top of the pass on your right when you're able to see the valley on the other side of the range.

From the Taylor Creek Road pullout, follow the well-maintained road west until you see a right turn for the well-maintained Forest Road 7467. There will be a small brown sign telling you that you've entered the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest and a cattle guard. Keep following FR 7467 also known as Badger Pass Road as it continues north. Very quickly you'll see a 4WD forest road on your right which you'll eventually reconnect along the loop. Keep going straight unless you want to do the loop in reverse.

Keep following this well-maintained road up and down some gentle hills until you come to a cattle guard at the top of a pass. There will be a 4WD forest road on your left that leads to Taylor Spring and a little bit ahead another 4WD forest road on your right. Take the Forest Road on your right. Climb to the top of the hill. Now you'll have a good section of downhill along a rather rocky Forest Road. Follow this for a very short while until it meets up with Forest Road 3991, which will be unmarked.

Take a right and continue south toward a pasture with a wooden fence. The road continues alongside the pasture and then continues south through a valley filled with sagebrush. There will be a smaller patch of trees on the hill to your right and a continuous line of trees on the hill to your left. The trees on your right will reappear and there will be a road on your right that goes uphill and stays north of the new tree line. Take this Unnamed Forest Road which has the toughest climb of the whole loop.

If you miss this right turn, keep going straight and you'll end up at HWY 278 around mile marker 13. Take a right turn at HWY 278 and follow the highway to the Taylor Creek pull-off where you parked.

If you do take the right turn and climb the hill, you'll get to a barbwire gate at the top of the hill. Go through the barbwire gate ignoring the roads that go right into the sagebrush and left into the trees. This is your final downhill section of the loop. The road will eventually fork but both will take you back to the original well maintained Forest Road 7476. Take the right fork if you want to do the loop again or take the left fork to return to your car.