A state lawmaker is working with trail groups and property owners on legislation that would reform Colorado’s recreational use statute.
14ers
Posted inOutdoors
Rocks? Sweet. Let’s roll in 4WD chairs designed to get people with disabilities deep into the Colorado forest
Track-chair program in Staunton State Park gives users a rare opportunity to experience the wilderness. Now the state park wants to push it across Colorado.
Posted inOutdoors
A woman was dismissed by the endurance community — until she climbed 14 of Colorado’s tallest mountains in less than 45 hours
Andrea Sansone was an elite endurance athlete, but it took crushing a women’s speed record for climbing 14 of Colorado’s tallest mountains to get her out of the shadow of her partner, legendary athlete Andrew Hamilton.
Posted inOpinion Columns
Opinion: If a person can own land, a person can own a mountain
I was somewhat distressed to read Trish Zornio’s opinion piece in which she seemed to be fit to be tied that — God forbid — a private entity could actually own a mountain, and even more to her dismay, that they could decide, as any private land owner has the right, to deny people to […]
Posted inNews, Outdoors
Hiker traffic on Colorado 14ers fell by 110,000 visits in 2021 after setting a record in 2020
After a record-setting year for Colorado’s highest peaks at the height of the pandemic, traffic on the state’s 14ers dropped in 2021, falling by more than 110,000 user days. The Colorado Fourteeners Initiative, using remote-sensor counters on 23 trails around the state, counted about 303,000 hikers scaling the state’s 54 14,000-foot peaks in 2021, down […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Zornio: Should private citizens be allowed to own or charge for Colorado’s 14ers?
For many Coloradans, summiting the state’s tallest peaks is a rite of passage. From the unparalleled beauty of the Rocky Mountains, to a deep sense of adventure after a long day at altitude, enjoying Colorado’s rugged wild spaces is part of who we are. But what many outdoor recreators — and even longtime residents — […]
Posted inNews, Outdoors
Two privately owned Colorado 14ers are open to hikers thanks to a unique partnership. Will it last?
MOSQUITO RANGE — Colorado Fourteeners Initiative trail builder Sarah Barringer looked up from her trail work on the switchback heading to the ridge below Mount Bross. A man was taking a shortcut, causing the kind of erosion that she was repairing. “Please stay on the trail,” Barringer said. “Don’t tell me what to do,” the […]
Posted inNews
Meet Colorado’s ultrarunning, Coors-chugging, self-described “rave twink”
When you go through his TikTok account, Michael Mitchell could be held up as an example of what happens when you spend too much time at high altitude. The videos show him carrying his slim, tan figure and wholesome, golden haircut up steep trails as fast as most of us walk a sidewalk in downtown […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: Mt. Blue Sky — a name that honors its natural and cultural values
On a cold November day in 1864, a military regiment in Colorado slaughtered hundreds of peacefully gathered Cheyenne and Arapaho men, women, and children in what is known as the Sand Creek Massacre. While he did not directly lead the assault, Colorado’s then-territorial governor, John Evans, bears much responsibility for the massacre. Evans created the […]
Posted inColoradans, Education, Environment, Equity, News, Outdoors
Plastic hippos are out. Colorado playgrounds are getting a more natural makeover.
Before 2016, Grant Frontier Park was touted as a place where prospectors first discovered gold in the South Platte River near Denver. No one seemed to care. “I never saw anyone in the park,” Gordon Robertson, director of planning design and construction at Denver Parks and Recreation Department, said of the three-block long park that […]