Colorado Experience: Building the Colorado Trail
The 567-mile Colorado Trail stretches from Denver to Durango, traversing six national forests, six wilderness areas, eight mountain ranges and five river systems. The vast trail system is maintained almost entirely by volunteers.
The idea for the Colorado Trail originated in the early 1970s, and the Colorado Trail Foundation considers 1974 to be the founding year. But trail systems that traverse the land now known as Colorado have long been used by Indigenous peoples, specifically the Ute Mountain Ute and the Southern Ute people, who relied on those trails to sustain their nomadic lifestyle. Sections of the Colorado Trail pass through traditional hunting lands.
Gudy Gaskill, known as the mother of the Colorado Trail, spearheaded the volunteer effort to build the trail. When progress on the trail slowed in the '80s, Gaskill enlisted the help of Gov. Dick Lamm to encourage more government support of the project, leading to the trail's completion in 1987.
The Colorado Trail welcomes visitors from across the country and around the world, but it continues to be maintained by Coloradans. There are currently 116 trail adopters — volunteers who take responsibility to care for a small section of the trail.
"For me, it's rewarding to walk down the trail and know that you had a part in making it what it is and making it nice for other users," trail adopter Connie Wian said. Wian maintains a nine-mile stretch of the trail in the Weminuche Wilderness.
While many people experience the trail by hiking a small section at a time, the Colorado Trail is also popular for thru-hikers, who travel the entire length of the trail in one trip.
"That confidence you get from hiking, I will carry that with me for the rest of my life," said Patricia Cameron, who hiked the Colorado Trail in 2020. "Everything about that thru-hike still sticks with me, and you have an immediate connection with the next person who is on the trail with you because you have all encountered the same thing at that point."
The Colorado Trail is also a significant driver for tourism in the towns along the route, like Lake City, where thru-hikers find respite before continuing on the trail.
The entire state is experiencing some level of drought, and wildfire risk — this year and over the next two decades — is a big concern for the trail, said Paul Talley, executive director of the Colorado Trail Foundation.
Gudy Gaskill is known as the mother of the Colorado Trail. An avid hiker and outdoors enthusiast, Gaskill was instrumental in the completion of the trail. Gaskill credited the idea for the Colorado Trail to Bill Lucas, a regional forester with the U.S. Forest Service, and Merrill Hastings, publisher of Colorado Magazine, who both spoke with her about a long-distance trail in Colorado. Gaskill, then-chairwoman of the Colorado Mountain Club’s Huts and Trails Committee, led the volunteer effort that built the trail. She hiked the entirety of the Colorado Trail at least five times before she died in 2016 at the age of 89.
Paul Talley is the executive director of the Colorado Trail Foundation, the organization that has overseen the maintenance of the trail since its completion in 1987. The foundation partners with the U.S. Forest Service, since most of the trail is on federal land. Talley said wildfire risk — elevated by a drastic reduction in federal employees, including firefighters within the U.S. Forest Service — is a big concern for the future of the trail.
Colorado Trail adopter Connie Wian has taken responsibility for maintaining a nine-mile section of the trail in the Weminuche Wilderness. Wian and her crew of fellow volunteers must backpack and camp to reach that section of the trail. They use hand tools to clear felled trees and other hazards from the trail. Wian is one of 116 people who have adopted small sections of the Colorado Trail.
A new Colorado Experience episode about the creation, maintenance and community of the Colorado Trail is available now on YouTube and the free RMPBS+ app. You can also watch it below:
Colorado Trail Map
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