The first 7 miles are on a smooth dirt road that follows the Gallatin River- a tributary of the Missouri River. Even though you are fairly close to the western edge of Bozeman, you immediately feel that you are far from the city and out in nature.
Right where we parked there was a huge Osprey nest where we could see one of the adult Osprey feeding two baby chicks.
On River Road, we had a group of deer that stood looking at us inquisitively, then bounded along in our direction for a bit. Then we were also lucky enough to see a pair of Sandhill Cranes in a field making their loud and unmistakable vocalizations. (Apparently, The Bozeman area is part of their migratory route and they can be found there during both during the spring and fall.)

Overall, this is a great intermediate gravel loop through rolling rural Montana. At 40 miles and only about 2,700 ft of elevation, the climbing is moderate and approachable. The terrain has a lot of interesting variety, from extremely smooth wide dirt to chunky unmaintained farm roads and lumpy double-track.

During many points in the ride you have great mountain views of the Gallatin Range and it's Hyalite Peaks.

We did this ride as a way to break up driving on a summer road trip as we passed through the area. Unfortunately it was a very hot day and the majority of the route is unshaded and exposed.
If we had to do it over again, we would have chosen a cooler time of day or more mild season.

Some of the chunkier road surface is on the descent sections, making it hard to just let go and coast downhill. We had to stay alert, negotiate good lines and slow our speed when necessary.