10 merry happenings in Colorado’s outdoors amid difficult year
CHRISTIAN MURDOCK, THE GAZETTE
In a dark year, Coloradans still had sunshine. Despite months defined by COVID-19 and social and political turmoil, we could still find refuge in the mountains.
While land managers noted negative side effects of overcrowding, this year saw plenty of positive developments for outdoor lovers. In this holiday season, we’re reflecting on good tidings:
Bluebird takes flight
A one-of-a-kind ski area opened in Colorado in 2020 — and then it expanded.
A February trial run “proved that the world is ready for a ski area without chairlifts,” the co-founders of Bluebird Backcountry wrote in a report. In the span of two weeks, they tallied more than 1,000 visitors, including 280 who took backcountry ski lessons at the mountainous property between Kremmling and Steamboat Springs.
Self-powered education is the modus operandi of Bluebird, which announced moving from 400 acres to a nearby 1,200 acres for its first full winter.
A skier descends snow fields of Bluebird Backcountry, what was billed as North America’s first backcountry ski area when it opened last spring between Kremmling and Steamboat SpringsBluebird announced expanding for its first full season this winter.
Pineries added to Pikes Peak region
Mother Nature restores, as visitors of the Pikes Peak region’s newest open space learned this year.
Northeast of Colorado Springs in Black Forest, the Pineries boasts a 9-mile loop trail partially reaching through the burn scar left by 2013’s wildfire. At the summer opening, flowers bloomed and butterflies danced amid the blackened timber. Green forests were also enjoyed by the open space’s first visitors on foot, horseback and bike, along with unbroken views of America’s Mountain and the Palmer Divide.
New, safer way to the top of Mount Elbert
Colorado Fourteeners Initiative, the nonprofit steward of the state’s highest summits, guided crews to the finish line of a four-year endeavor on Mount Elbert.
Colorado’s tallest mountain now has a new, sustainably constructed path on the heavily trafficked East Ridge route. The trail replaces a rutted one that was damaging to the fragile alpine tundra.
A biker takes air at the Minturn Bike Park.
Desire meets bike park
For such a bike-loving locale, it might come as a surprise that the Vail Valley had never had a skills course of the sort that opened in August. The reason, said resident advocate Ernest Saeger, had something to do with “land here usually being developed or sold for large amounts of money.”
But thanks to a collaboration with the town and other partners, Minturn Bike Park came to life, complete with flow trails, a pump track and big-air jumps.
Saeger, executive director of Vail Valley Mountain Trails Alliance, said the park represented “by far our biggest spend, by far the biggest risk we’ve taken in our nine-year existence. But it’ll be absolutely worth it.”
Sporting world expands
The pandemic apparently broadened the ranks of sportsmen and women.
In September, Colorado Parks and Wildlife reported about 15,000 more big-game hunting applications in the year compared with 2019.
Of the year total, fishing licenses were up 18%, according to CPW. The agency reports 8,200 more small-game and fishing combo licenses sold in 2020 than last year.
“We’d love to see these quarantine activities become beloved family traditions,” CPW said in a statement.
Fishers Peak State Park is 19,200 acres in size and will be a multiple use park open to hiking, limited hunting and partnership with ranchers grazing cattle in the park boundaries. (Forrest Czarnecki/The Gazette)
A treasure debuts
In what was a surprise to anyone familiar with the long process of opening land to public recreation — especially when that land covers 19,200 acres — officials unveiled Fishers Peak State Park, just one year after the preserve was acquired.
To be sure, it will be a while before the entirety of Colorado’s 42nd and second largest state park is open. But people can at least explore a corner of the land with Trinidad’s iconic landmark. Previously, it had always been in private hands.
“I can’t think of anything in the past that has been so significant to our area,” acting city manager Michael Valentine said.
Horses graze in one of the many pastures at the 2,038-acre Sandstone Ranch outside Larkspur.
‘Magical’ open space unlocked
Upon its September opening, Sandstone Ranch was heralded the “crown jewel” of Douglas County’s open space portfolio.
The 2,038 acres of red rocks and farm buildings at the foot of Pike National Forest was set aside in 2017. “What was slated for development is now protected forever,” read the park’s signage and map detailing 12 “magical miles of trails.”
Beloved trail is fully accomplished
Volunteers with Ouray Trail Group in October celebrated the completion of the town’s favorite foot path.
Connecting the 6.2 miles of the Ouray Perimeter Trail was a 15-year project. Now locals and visitors will have no sidestepping to do along the route, which tours waterfalls and the rugged edges of Ouray’s box canyon, overlooks forests and showcases the jagged San Juan Mountains that give the town its nickname, the Switzerland of America.
MTB destination is born
Construction finished on a scenic trail that mountain bikers have long fantasized about on the Western Slope: 32 miles of singletrack dropping from the top of the Grand Mesa to the town of Palisade.
Colorado Plateau Mountain Bike Trail Association has drawn ambitious comparisons to Salida’s Monarch Crest Trail and Moab’s Whole Enchilada Trail. The group anticipates more than 5,000 riders testing their mettle on the Palisade Plunge this coming summer, when the trail is set to open.
Family in a rowboat on Sweetwater Lake in Garfield County.
Sweet dream closer to reality
A multi-organizational mission resulted in the $7.1 million purchase of 488 acres bordering Sweetwater Lake, cherished in Garfield County but largely privately held.
A “Save the Lake” fundraising campaign started in opposition of proposed development around the scenic waters reflecting the Flat Tops Wilderness. In a July news release, The Conservation Fund called the acquisition “a local pipe dream for decades.”
White River National Forest’s request to take care of the lake with Land and Water Conservation Fund money was approved last month.
