The town of Vail is seeking feedback from users of the Gore Creek Promenade on potential park improvements. Located along Gore Creek between the area of the Children’s Fountain and the International Bridge in Vail.
The Gore Valley Trail through Dowd Junction will be reopened for a new season by 5 p.m. Friday, April 16, weather permitting. Users are advised to use extreme caution during or after additional snowstorms due to snowplowing activity on Interstate 70.
In addition to sweeping, cleaning and other repairs, reopening the trail requires the installation of a fabric screen near the Mud Springs Gulch wildlife underpass. The screen hides trail users from migrating deer and elk and allows the trail to remain open during the spring migration season.
Regarding other pathways, the recreation trail from Sunburst Drive to East Vail is being plowed for reopening on April 14 or sooner; avalanche danger may be present near Aspen Lane. The section of recreation trail between Lionshead and Westhaven Drive will be plowed once the ski season is completed.
Daily file photo
Trail use is exploding on the Booth Lake trail. The town of Vail may have the quickest solution to limit that use.
The Vail Town Council at its Feb. 2 meeting heard a presentation from town staff members about use on the trail, and possible options to limit use on the town’s most popular trail into the Eagles Nest Wilderness.
Vail Police Chief Dwight Henninger told councilmembers that use on the trail may have jumped by roughly 50% in 2020. That puts more people on a wilderness trail than the U.S. Forest Service wants to see.
A town-commissioned study notes that Forest Service guidelines call for no more than 12 parties encountered per day on a trail. The study notes the Booth Lake trail has exceeded those guidelines in five of the past six years. The average number of high season encounters has jumped from 36 per day in 2019 to 55 per day in 2020.