The new Four Corners Trailhead opened Tuesday on the site of the old Anderson gravel operation off Gooch Hill Road. County Commissioner Marlene Haskins cut a ribbon made of orange construction fencing while a front loader finished grading the overflow lot in the background.

The facility includes a vault toilet, a kiosk with a map that already has someone’s gum stuck to it, and parking for thirty-eight vehicles. The old gravel pit walls rise forty feet on three sides, creating what the county’s press release calls a “natural amphitheater” and what neighbor Dale Pendleton calls “an echo chamber for every dog in the valley.”

“I’ve been hiking Drinking Horse for twenty years,” said Pendleton, 67, leaning on a walking stick he bought at the Co-op last week. “Now I can drive five minutes from my house and get the same view of the Bridgers with half the elevation gain. My knees sent a thank-you note.”

The trail itself — 1.2 miles of switchbacks up the reclaimed slope to a ridge with panoramic views — was built by a Montana Conservation Corps crew over six weeks in June and July. Crew leader Javier Ruiz, 29, said the hardest part wasn’t the grades but the questions. “Every third hiker asked if this was the trail to the Yellowstone Club,” he said. “We’re four miles from the gate. I started telling people yes just to see what they’d do.”

The parking lot was full by 8:15 Tuesday morning. A Subaru Outback with a “Native” bumper sticker waited while a lifted Ram 2500 with a “Don’t California My Montana” sticker backed into a pull-through spot. The drivers waved at each other.

County Parks Director Gwen Houlton said the trailhead cost $420,000, funded by a mill levy voters approved in 2022. “People wanted more access close to town,” she said. “This is close to town. Until next year, when the subdivision breaks ground across the road.”

The kiosk map shows a future connector to the Main Street to the Mountains trail system. Someone has already drawn a dotted line to the Yellowstone Club in ballpoint pen.