Five Valleys Land Trust has received a Montana Recreational Trails Grant that will enable Five Valleys to begin work on the House of Sky Trail in Missoula’s South Hills later this year.

    The Missoula Current article explains the complex land ownership and management activities on and near Mount Dean Stone. The House of Sky Trail will help to eventually link the north and south side of the Mount Dean Stone area, but in the short term will take trail users up the south side of the ridge.

     “It’ll help form the backbone along the top of the Dean Stone trail network,” Whitney Schwab, Five Valleys executive director, said in the article. “It’ll go from the west fork of Deer Creek and connect to the ridge on the south side near the radio towers. It’ll construct nearly five miles of trail along the south side of the Dean Stone ridge.”

     The Nature Conservancy in Montana is a major partner in the Mount Dean Stone project. The $75,000 grant from the Recreation Trails Program is managed by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. The program itself is funded from motor fuel taxes.