If you live anywhere near the top of the Rims, you've probably already seen the notice. Zimmerman Trail closes completely from Rimrock Road to Highway 3 starting Tuesday, August 19 at 8:15 a.m., reopening Thursday, August 21 at 5 p.m., with a shorter follow-up closure the next week to apply a protective sealant. The city's public works department is calling it routine road repair and stormwater drainage work, and that's exactly what it is.
It's worth saying plainly, because the timing invites a different assumption. This closure has nothing to do with the bigger trail project everyone up here has been talking about for three years. Zimmerman Trail the road, Skyline Trail the paved path along the rimrock, and Stagecoach Trail the still-unbuilt connector between the valley and the top are three separate projects on three separate timelines, and residents who conflate them tend to either panic about construction that isn't starting yet or shrug off news that actually matters. Here's the difference, and why it matters for anyone who walks, bikes, or just drives this stretch regularly.
What's already built, and what it cost
The Skyline Trail is real and it's been open for almost three years. It's a three-mile paved, ten-foot-wide multiuse path connecting Zimmerman Park to Swords Park, tying into the popular Black Otter Trail along the way. It's accessible to wheelchairs and strollers, not just hikers and cyclists, and it opened with a public dedication in December 2023 after Billings TrailNet spent years raising matching funds alongside a $11.6 million federal BUILD grant that also paid for the adjacent Inner Belt Loop roadway.
The build cost roughly $3 million. Keep that number in your head, because the next project on the list costs at least double, and the reason why is the whole story.
The gap nobody's fixed yet
Here's what the Skyline Trail does not do: get you from the valley floor up to the Rims without a car. If you live in the Heights or drive up Zimmerman Trail to reach it, you're still driving. That's the gap the proposed Stagecoach Trail is supposed to close, and it's been "coming soon" for long enough that some residents have stopped believing it will.
The numbers explain the delay better than any status update. The Stagecoach Trail was originally slated to start construction in fiscal year 2026, per the city's Capital Improvement Plan. Engineering took longer than expected, pushing the realistic construction window to 2027. When the city presented its 30% design to council members earlier this year, the price tag had grown considerably: one switchback design ran close to $7.3 million, driven mostly by the cost of retaining walls needed along Zimmerman itself, while a competing option nicknamed the "Incline of Regret" carried an estimate between $5.9 million and $7.9 million. Even the cheapest version costs nearly twice what the entire, already-open Skyline Trail did.
That's not because Stagecoach Trail is longer. It's because it has to climb the Rims safely for pedestrians and cyclists on a slope that a road engineer would never choose voluntarily, which means switchbacks, retaining walls, and a lot of concrete that a flat rimrock path never needed.
The good news, and it is genuinely good news for anyone who's been waiting: the funding gap finally closed this year. Billings TrailNet reported that city council approved its next budget on June 10, 2026, completing what the group called the funding puzzle for the Stagecoach Trail. Construction still isn't scheduled to start until 2027, but for the first time the project has a real path to actually happening rather than just a rendering and a wish list.
Three names, three timelines
| Project | What it is | Status as of August 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Zimmerman Trail | The road itself, from Rimrock Road to Highway 3 | Closed Aug. 19-21 for repair and drainage work, plus a shorter follow-up closure the next week |
| Skyline Trail | 3-mile paved path, Zimmerman Park to Swords Park | Open since December 2023, connects to Black Otter Trail |
| Stagecoach Trail | Proposed nonmotorized route from the valley to the top of the Rims | Fully funded as of June 2026, construction expected 2027 |
Why this is the project TrailNet's own members asked for
Billings TrailNet didn't invent the demand for Stagecoach Trail out of nowhere. When the nonprofit mailed a survey to roughly four thousand households in 2023 and got 208 responses back, more than 65% of respondents said they use trails at least monthly, and Stagecoach Trail came back as the group's top priority project. That's not a huge sample, but it lines up with what's obvious to anyone who's tried to bike up Zimmerman Trail on a Saturday morning and found nowhere safe to put a wheel next to traffic.
Kristi Drake, TrailNet's executive director, has put the need plainly.
"There is so much recreation up on the Rims, and no way to get there by foot or by bike, so this is a giant step."
She's also been explicit about the bigger picture the Stagecoach Trail fits into. TrailNet's long-term goal is a 26.2-mile Marathon Loop encircling the city, stitching together the Rims, downtown, the river, and ZooMontana into one continuous route. The Skyline Trail is one finished piece of that loop. Stagecoach Trail is the missing piece that actually connects the top of the Rims to everything below it. Drake has described the vision simply: you'd be able to go from ZooMontana up to the Rims, then down to downtown and to the river, all on trail.
What's actually usable right now, and worth doing
None of this means there's nothing to do up here this month. The Skyline Trail is open, it's flat and easy, and it already connects to enough of the existing trail network that a short walk turns into a real outing. If you're looking for a reason to get out on it before the days get shorter, there are two on the calendar worth knowing about.
The inaugural Billings Skyline Races took place on May 31, 2026, with a half marathon and a 30K that ran along the sandstone ridge of the Skyline Trail and the rolling hills of Skyway Drive before finishing along the shaded Alkali Creek Trail at Two Moon Park. Part of the proceeds went to Billings TrailNet, and given how it landed with runners this year, there's every reason to expect it to become an annual fixture on the local racing calendar.
Closer to the calendar right now: TrailNet's annual Ales for Trails fundraiser returns on Friday, August 28, with live music, local brews, food trucks, and the kind of low-key summer send-off that's become a fixture for people who actually use these trails, not just people who read about them.
What to actually keep in mind
If you live along Zimmerman Trail or use it as your regular route to the Rims, plan around the closure this coming week and the shorter one the week after. If you've been waiting for a safe way to bike or walk from the valley up to Zimmerman Park without dodging traffic on a narrow shoulder, the wait continues into at least 2027, but the funding obstacle that stalled it for years is now behind it. And if you've been treating "the trail up on the Rims" as one single thing, it's worth knowing which piece is actually open, which piece is closed for three days, and which piece still doesn't exist yet.
The Rims aren't going anywhere. Neither is the gap between what's built and what's promised. But for the first time in a while, the promise has a budget attached to it.
Curious what else is changing in the neighborhoods around the Rims, or thinking about what your own home near the trail system might be worth? Heidi Brosovich and the team at Brosovich Real Estate Team work these northwest Billings neighborhoods every day and are happy to talk through what's next, whether that's a trail update or a market one. Request a Free Home Valuation to start the conversation.
