Route of the Hiawatha Scenic Mtn Bike Trail

Incredible biking opportunity! Very little exertion as the whole trail is slightly downhill. Scenery is unbelievable and picturesque beyond imagination. Bike rentals available for a small fee but recommend bringing your own bike as theirs are “very well used” and not well maintained. Gets very busy in summer peak months and advance reservations are required to maintain number limits each day. Bike trip of a lifetime. Had to go on it again to take in laws on it. Approximately 18 miles with an overall 2% grade downhill. Very dark cave portion at the start for approx 2 miles of tunnel and bike light required. Equipped on all rentals for a small $2.00 fee.

One of engineering 's greatest marvels! This is a once in a lifetime experience.
Do yourself a favor and go with an electric bike, then the ride back will be easier if you don't take the shuttle bus.

Very easy, "green trail" 15 mi long with 10 tunnels (first tunnel is 1.66 mi long) and 7 trestles. Take exit 5 from Montana side. You can rent bikes right at the trail and take shuttle back (for a pay), but it's an easy ride back.
P. S. Don't forget lights and warm clothes for the tunnels, even if it's hot summer day, it's quite a more chilly in there.

We were in town from Georgia and the trail came highly recommended. The trail itself did not disappoint! Beautiful views, impressive history, and nearly perfect weather. The shuttle was awesome and the bus driver, Sean, did a great job!

With all that was good, the rental bikes were horrid. We returned 3 bikes to get bikes that functioned and still ended up with bikes that had issues with shifting, braking, or making seat adjustments. 6 out of 6 bikes were not functional in some way. My daughters tag-along rode at a 25 degree angle the entire time because proper spacers were not available to ensure a proper fit. The Burley was acceptably clean on the inside after asking staff to wipe it out but the outside was filthy. So much so that you could not see inside the trailer without the weather screen rolled up. I recommend doing the trail but strongly recommend NOT renting bicycles through lookout pass.

Such a beautiful mountain bike trail, there is a shuttle at the bottom to take you back up once you reach the bottom. The first tunnel is relatively long, wet, slick, dark, and oddly cold year round. Bring a flashlight and honestly a light jacket specifically for the tunnel if you get cold easy.

LoVEd this trail! I wish it was longer or that we had planned to ride back instead of shuttle. Will have to return! It rained the day we rode so we got quite muddy, especially in the tunnel at east portal. If you're Canadian make sure you clean your bike before crossing the border lol.

OVERPRICED & OVERRATED - Rode up from Avery then up the trail last weekend. We were told when we arrived at the trailhead (top) we could only buy a combo ticket to ride down & take the shuttle back up. This was the policy for weekend riders. Really…! No mention of this at the bottom by staff, no flexibility at the top. We felt ripped off and this soured the whole experience. Having ridden the Mickleson trail in the Black Hills and the Trail of the Coeur d’Alene in the previous few weeks we were left feeling the $80 cost was excessive for a trail that lacked the scenic variation of the two above mentioned trails and came a distant 3rd in terms of quality of the trail surface. Incredibly disappointing experience.

I wish I could express that our ride of the Hiawatha was great, it was not. The trail itself is beautiful and well-maintained. We loved the trestles and the tunnels. The history of the area is incredible. Our bus ride back with “Jack Sparrow’s” lookalike was awesome. He was so informative and shared much information and history of the trail. However, customer service from other staff members needs to be questioned. Issues at the beginning of the ride were resolved by a manager, but at the end of our ride, an employee threatened my husband and my family, chasing us down while trying to return our bikes and helmets due to confusion at the beginning of the trail. This all happened in front of other families and children. Customer service like this should never have happened, and the individual’s behavior was unethical and uncalled for. After further conversations with management, I hope employees do better in taking care of their customers. It was unfortunate that something we had enjoyed as a family had to be destroyed by an employee with a huge ego and anger management issues.

This trail is beautiful! We started at the eastern head of the trail and rode with lots of little kids, and it was such an easy path that we decided to ride back uphill to see it again. It rained on us but we really didn’t get cold after the first long tunnel.

As a side note, I will leave a different review for the company that rents the bikes and manages the trail. We had several issues with them and with their bikes. But our review for the trial is definitely 5 stars!

Great trail but do not do a bike rental from lookout pass. Their bikes are worn and broken and the staff will not help. The trail is littered with their broken bikes all the way down.

5 stars for the tour but only 3 for the process at the beginning at the Lockout Pass. It's very inconvenient. First get tickets in the building above the parking lot. Which took far too long. Signage incorrect. Then drive to the bike rental shop right next door. Very friendly staff. The bikes are in very bad condition. Full of dirt. Gears are very bad. Saddle defective. Be sure to test drive and try everything out. After all, the bike is your companion for around 5 hours. There is a suitable wheel carrier for every car. There is also a helmet and lamp. Then you drive to the actual start of the tour via the motorway and a forest road. Duration approx. 25 minutes. Then it finally starts. A fantastic experience. At the end a bus will take you back almost to the beginning. You then have to cycle a little further to the start. Your ass will be glad he did it. From here take the car again to the Lockout Pass. Give everything back and you're done.

Worth doing at least once. It does require more peddling than advertised for being mostly down hill, but a beautiful view. Seriously though take a head lamp. The first tunnel is no joke!

Beautiful scenery and mountains! Had an interesting balance of hot and cold with the tunnels. I would do it again if it wasn’t so far from civilization!

Amazing trail!

Very beautiful, only took 75 minutes going down at a leisurely pace.

Bike back up and don't take the shuttle! Was late then we had to get out of the bus going up as we were sandwiched with a large dump truck coming down. Driver was scared of going off the side! It's such a small decline coming down, it would have been easy going up.

We were there right at opening and enjoyed the quiet trail.