Anyone who parks at the Tetonia trailhead this month is going to find orange barricades and a sign about paving crews. It looks like the whole 30-mile corridor is shut down. It isn't. The closures are real, but they sit at the two ends of the trail, not the middle, which means the single best stretch of riding on the entire route is currently easier to have mostly to yourself than it's been in years. You just can't start from Main Street to get there.
What's Actually Barricaded
Idaho Parks and Recreation is in the middle of a $3 million paving project on the Ashton-Tetonia Trail, funded by a federal economic development grant, and the agency's own construction update lists two specific closures as of early August. The Tetonia Parking Area to Highway 33 section is closed while crews prep it for paving, with no reopening date posted. On the other end, the Ashton-to-Fall-River-Trestle stretch was closed for paving and shoulder work, with the state targeting a mid-August reopening, weather permitting.
That's it. Two bookends. If you've been avoiding the trail entirely because you assumed the whole thing was torn up, you've been skipping the part that never closed.
The Middle Nobody Blocked
The stretch from Felt north to the Bitch Creek trestle is the segment locals and trail guides consistently point to as the most scenic on the route, and it hasn't been part of any closure notice. It's roughly 7.8 miles one way, 15.6 round trip, running through open meadows, cottonwood-lined draws, and infrequent road crossings before ending at a 600-foot trestle bridge that clears 130 feet above Bitch Creek. About four miles in from the Felt access point, the trail passes Judkins, which has the only restroom on that stretch.
Further south, near Conant Creek, the trail crosses the Pegram Truss Railroad Bridge, a 1911 structure listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It's one of three historic trestles on the corridor, alongside Fall River and Bitch Creek, all built to the same 600-foot, 130-foot specification when the Union Pacific ran its Teton Valley Branch through here between 1910 and 1912.
None of that is closed. If your mental map of this month is "the trail is under construction," the more accurate version is "the two access points closest to town are under construction, and the good part is a five-minute drive away."
Why the Paving Fight Wasn't Really About Pavement
The construction happening now didn't arrive without a fight, and knowing the fight explains why the closures landed where they did. In 2024, Idaho Parks and Recreation held a public meeting at Teton High School to present what residents expected to be a discussion and instead got a nearly finalized plan to pave the trail. More than 60 people showed up, including county commissioners, and the pushback was pointed: locals didn't want the entire 29 miles paved. The trail advocacy group Trails and Pathways asked the state to pave only short sections near parking areas and scenic overlooks, and to leave the rest as natural surface, partly out of concern for horseback riders who'd lose the softer footing.
That's roughly what's playing out. The state's current phase covers about six miles of trail and five parking lots rather than the full corridor, concentrated at the ends near Ashton and Tetonia. The middle, including the Felt to Bitch Creek run, wasn't in the first wave. Whether that changes in a later phase remains to be seen, but for this month it means the compromise residents pushed for in that auditorium is more or less the situation on the ground.
Starting From Felt Instead
If Tetonia has always been your default starting point, Felt is the workaround. It sits about five miles north of Tetonia off local roads, with parking at the trailhead and direct access into the open stretch north toward Bitch Creek. Judkins gives you a rest point partway in if you're riding it as an out-and-back rather than pushing all the way to the trestle.
The trail surface itself is packed gravel and dirt, not currently paved on this segment, so wider tires help. Idaho Parks and Recreation and local trail guides both recommend gravel or mountain bike tires at least 32 millimeters wide over anything built for pavement. Bring water regardless of distance. There's no service anywhere on this stretch, and shade is limited once you're out of the cottonwood pockets near the creek crossings.
What's Waiting on Main Street
Whichever direction you ride, Main Street in Tetonia is a short drive back, and the town's two bars have carved out enough of a rivalry that picking one over the other has become its own small ritual.
The Tetonia Club sits in a building that opened as the valley's first bar in 1912. Scott Kauf, a five-time World Pro Mogul Tour champion, reopened it in 2018 and built out the backyard into a stage with mismatched string lights, a fire pit, and a pool table locals describe as the most scenic pool room in the Tetons. The club runs live music Friday and Saturday nights through the summer and into fall, with Sunday open mic nights that have produced an unofficial house band, Triple Lindy, out of the regulars who kept showing up. This Friday, September 5, the club has Sky Cougar booked, a Salt Lake City funk band making its Teton Valley debut.
Directly across the street, Dave's Pubb has been quietly building its own following. Thursdays run a Cigar Club from 6 to 8pm with 20 percent off drinks, and karaoke nights draw a mixed crowd of regulars and visitors willing to take the mic. Dave's has a live show scheduled for September 16, giving the two bars back to back weekends of programming without stepping on each other's calendar.
For daytime riders who want food before the bars open, Badger Creek Cafe on North Main is the town's other anchor. Owners Elyse Archer and Johnny Flyg both trained in Michelin-starred kitchens before landing in Tetonia, and the cafe has built a local following around the Rodeo Burger and a breakfast special locals call the Big Bad Badger. Like a lot of small operations in a resort valley with sharp seasonal swings, the cafe has adjusted its hours more than once in the past couple of years to match demand, most recently settling into lunch and dinner three days a week alongside weekend brunch. Worth a quick check of current hours before you go, since a two-person kitchen in a town this size adjusts fast when the season shifts.
One Tripadvisor reviewer summed up the club's appeal simply: "Thank you Scott, for reviving the Tetonia Club!"
The Actual Takeaway
The trail isn't closed. The version of it closest to your usual parking spot is closed, and the version worth riding is a short drive north. That distinction matters if you've been sitting out a month of good weather because a barricade sign made the whole thing look shut down. Start at Felt, ride toward Bitch Creek, and come back into town for a burger at Badger Creek or a Friday night set at the Tetonia Club. The construction ends eventually. The riding didn't stop in the meantime.
If you're weighing what life actually looks like in a town this size, from trail access to the two bars arguing over Friday nights, that's the kind of on the ground detail we track because we live and work in this valley too. Wealthwise Real Estate is always glad to talk through what Tetonia and the rest of Teton Valley offer, on the trail or off it. Contact us anytime.
