Fall is the perfect time to hit the trails. Flowing along to the sound of golden aspen leaves under your tires or shoe tread; being outdoors rarely feels so good. There are notes of summer and hints of winter, and nothing beats being outdoors surrounded by the golden, red, yellow and green hues.
Durango Trails recommends several special places to best experience this pumpkin-spiced time of year:
Animas Mountain Start at the trailhead on 4th Avenue, and take this 6 mile round-trip hike through the forest and up the mountain for a great view of the valley. The mountain bike, trail running and hiking trails provide a stout climb to the top, where the view from Animas Mountain into the Falls Creek Valley provides a great vista of fall colors.
Missionary Ridge While a popular hunting area (make sure you’re decked out in blaze orange), Missionary and Steven’s Creeks embrace you with the beauty of fall. Plenty of trees abound, whether on Red or First Fork, and will tantalize leaf peepers with abundant fall colors. Check this link for more info.
Hermosa Creek Trail While the 416 fire left its mark in the Hermosa area, the remaining trees and oak brush still provide beautiful views of fall colors along Hermosa Creek. Start with an out-and-back from lower Hermosa, or drive up to Purgatory and enter from upper Hermosa Park Road. You may encounter standing water along the way. On your way up, you can also take a detour to the Cutthroat Trail at the intersection of Relay Creek and Cascade Divide Road.
West Cross Creek Many a local’s favorite ride is the climb up Hotel Draw Road combined with the descent down West Creek Trail back to the Upper Hermosa parking lot. The trail is a windy single track with incredible views across the aspen-covered valley.
Pent-up desire to participate in volunteer events has produced incredible early-season support!
Special thanks to the 8th-grade students and teachers at Miller Middle School for their support in maintaining the famous Sky Steps.
Durango’s Sky Steps officially opened in June 2017, creating a town to sky connection from Durango to the Fort Lewis College campus, home of the Skyhawks.
Over 500 steps gaining over 250 feet in elevation along the Nature Trail in Durango make for a wonderful walking route, commute to the college, or training steps right in town.
In partnership with the City of Durango and Fort Lewis College, the steps were built entirely by Durango Trails volunteers and crews.
Durango’s Sky Steps are amongst various urban stairs that have long been recognized as fitness and tourist destinations, including the Manitou Incline near Colorado Springs, known as one of the most popular and challenging hikes in the area, and the iconic Santa Monica stairs in Los Angeles.
Trails 2000, Durango Nature Studies, the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad and Alpine Bank are pleased to partner to plant milkweed seeds at the Hermosa Rail Yard on Friday, October 12, 2018, to help increase monarch butterflies in the area. Volunteers are needed to help plant milkweed from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. at the rail yard; all ages are welcome to volunteer and no experience is necessary, as all tools and instruction will be provided.
Milkweed plants are the only food source for monarch butterfly caterpillars. However, milkweed has severely declined in North America due to drastic changes in land use or management. Milkweed losses and other stressors are associated with declines in migratory monarch butterflies over the past 20 years. To compensate for the loss of milkweed, gardeners across North America are helping monarchs by planting native species of milkweeds and by keeping milkweeds safe from pesticides.
The project hopes to inspire adults and youth to come give back to the community. Volunteers should meet at the Hermosa Rail Yard, which is accessed by driving north on Highway 550 from Durango. After the train tracks cross the highway, just past Hermosa, take the first right onto the frontage road and park along the road or in the gravel parking area. All tools and instruction will be provided on site. Patti Zink, of Waterfall Ranch, will harvest milkweed pods from the ranch to transplant at the rail yard. Refreshments and snacks will be provided for all volunteer participants.
Approval received following in-depth analysis of Smokejumper’s Trail and Sugar to Skyline connect
Trails 2000 will build two new trails—the Smokejumper’s Trail and a connect from Sugar to Skyline Trails—in Durango during the late fall of 2017. In late September, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) signed off on the environmental analysis (EA) required for trail proposals on federal lands, marking the final step required to start building the new trails. Find out how you can help out at trailwork.
The Smokejumper’s Trail, which will start at the top of Skyline and run north from Raider Ridge, is in honor of Joseph Philpott who died in an avalanche in 2013. Philpott grew up in Durango and went on to major in Forestry at NAU and CSU. He worked for the BLM as a smokejumper based in Boise, Idaho. Joe was an adventurous, conscientious young man and his parents were interested in honoring him to capture hisdynamic nature.
Joseph Philpott.
“When we came to Trails 2000, Mary [Monroe Brown, executive director] suggested that we work on a trail that would reflect Joe’s amazing life and personality with a trail from Raider Ridge north on the BLM land. When we walked it, it felt like Joe,” said Margo Philpott, Joe’s mother. “It has beautiful ridgetop views, it’s rugged and is part of a long traverse that he used to run and train on.”
In 2014, Trails 2000 completed the Sugar Trail, connecting Skyline to Horse Gulch Road. (The Skyline Trail was built by Trails 2000 in 2009 to connect the Skyridge area to Powerline and the top of Hyper Extended Ridge.) Trails 2000 hoped to connect Sugar directly to Skyline at that time, but a portion of the trail would need to cross BLM land.
Trails on federal lands (Forest Service and BLM) require a level of environmental analysis necessary for NEPA—the National Environmental Policy Act. Trails 2000 entered into the proposal process and hired local environmental consultant, Heidi McGrath, a good friend of Joe’s and the Philpott family, to help see it through to completion.
“EAs are a lot of work and require analyzing various environmental impacts, from wildlife and plants to soils and recreation. It’s a time consuming process and a bit arduous, especially for small nonprofits. In Durango, we are surrounded by 60 percent of public lands, and trail proposals like that of Trails 2000 are an important economic driver for our community,” said McGrath, owner of Columbine Environment based in Durango. She added, “I was excited to be involved in this project since I knew Joe and the Philpott family would love the trail.”
The analysis also included a cultural resource survey to assess any artifacts that may exist on the trail. The cultural study, of which no artifacts were identified, was donated by ERO Resources, an environmental consulting firm based in Denver with a satellite office in Durango. “Trails 2000 does so much for our community, and as a trail user who owns a company in town, I was happy to find a way to give back by donating the analysis,” said Sean Larmore, principle investigator of ERO Resources in Durango.
In general, the process of how a trail becomes a trail can take anywhere from two to five years to complete. It requires involvement from various land managers and stakeholders, many of whom are long-time partners of Trails 2000, and involves idea development and research, to proposal and review, and finally to approval and building. (The Trails 2000 infographic, How a Trails Becomes a Trail, helps to illustrate this in-depth process.)
“The process [of how a trail becomes a trail] is complex; it requires vision, strategy and a certain level of tenacity,” said Trails 2000 board member, Christina Rinderle. “You need an organization like Trails 2000 out in front, gathering feedback, and keeping in touch with the community so you can devise a plan and see it through to completion.”
Trails 2000 will start building the trails, October 30 through November 2 (9 am to 5pm each day), and seeks volunteers to help out at trailwork. Details can be found at Trails 2000 Online Calendar and RSVP on Facebook. Volunteers are invited to come for as long or little as they can, and no experience is necessary as Trails 2000 crews will be on site with all tools, instruction and safety, and water and snacks for volunteers. The Philpott family plans to install the commemorative sign for the Smokejumper’s Trail in November.
“We feel grateful and honored to be part of helping expand the Trails 2000 trail system. We feel like it’s a way to give back to our community, by helping create something lasting, as well as to remember and honor Joseph,” said Margo Philpott.
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