Local nonprofit working to connect Pocatello and Chubbuck through interconnected trails
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POCATELLO — A nonprofit organization in the Portneuf Valley is working to connect two cities through walking and biking trails.
This is the eventual goal of the Portneuf Greenway Foundation, to create a triangle of interconnected paths around Pocatello and Chubbuck. Although the completion of interconnected pathways is still a long way away, Dan Harrelson, President of the Portneuf Greenway Foundation, said that the organization is providing good recreation nearby people’s homes while trying to achieve this goal.
“The main benefit of a lot of this — it’s not so much transportation, it’s having a place where people can go to walk that’s close to their home,” Harrelson said.
While the foundation aims to do this, it doesn’t know when it will be completed or if it will be.
“I hope to have it done before I die,” Harrelson said.
The foundation has constructed 18 miles of trails in its three decades of existence, but “there’s going to be little gaps in it for a long, long time,” Harrelson said.
When the foundation started in 1992, it was only focused on providing pathways and trails along the Portneuf River.
“As time went on, there were just more opportunities to build away from the river. We kind of ran into a dead end along the river, and so we found other places where trails were needed and trails were wanted,” Harrelson said.
Harrelson said that Rory Erchul, president of the foundation for six years in the late 2010s, was the originator of the idea, but Erchul said that it started even before his time.
“I think it was a culmination of many people’s ideas over the years,” Erchul said.
Harrelson said that if they complete the triangle someday, it could become even faster to go on a bicycle then it would be to drive down Yellowstone.
The triangle’s southernmost point would be near Ross Park, and it would use a combination of already existing trails, trails currently under construction and ones that have yet to be built. One side would go up into Historic Downtown Pocatello on trails near the Portneuf River, and the other side would go up trails that run parallel to Interstate 15. The two sides would then be connected by trails in Chubbuck around the Northgate area.
Under construction is the Connecting Communities pathway. Work on it started at the beginning of May, and it will connect the Bannock County Event Center with Pocatello Creek Road when completed sometime either late this fall or early spring 2025.
The Connecting Communities path has been funded through a combination of donations, grants and funds from the Idaho Transportation Department. The foundation still needs funding to connect some portions of the pathway under construction, so people and other organizations can visit their website if they want to contribute.
Idaho Central Credit Union is a major donor to the path and the foundation has received grants from Idaho Parks and Recreation Department, the Portneuf Health Trust, the Idaho Environmental Coalition and the Idaho Community Foundation. The Idaho Transportation Department is also funding a major portion of the project.
If the Connecting Communities Pathway connecting Pocatello and Chubbuck is completed someday, Erchul doesn’t think it’ll ever replace driving, but he also doesn’t think that it needs to.
“There’s a fair amount of people that prefer to ride a bike or would prefer to walk, whether it’s just for leisure or to get from one place to another,” Erchul said.
Although Harrelson doesn’t want people to think that an interconnected triangle of pathways will be finished in the near future, he said the foundation is making more progress on trails then they have in the past. He hopes to see this progress continue, creating convenient recreation for the community to enjoy while also working towards convenient transportation.
“There’s probably more progress being made on bicycle and pedestrian (pathways) in the next five years than there has been in the last 20 years,” Harrelson said.