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Traffic control at the Bear Lake trailhead in Rocky Mountain National Park. has been a problem for years. (Chet Strange, Special to The Denver Post)
The next step in a process that may result in a permanent reservation system for Rocky Mountain National Park will be taken starting this week, when a 60-day public comment period begins.
A pair of informational webinars on the plan to manage the impacts of explosive visitation growth will be held on May 20 and May 25, and are open to the public. Park officials will explain why they believe visitation must be controlled and what ideas they have for accomplishing it. The public comment period will run from May 21 through July 19. Comments can be made online or by mail.
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Colorado s Brainard Lake Recreation Area Photo: Kaushal Subedi
Spring is in full swing, and hikers across the country are breathing a sigh of relief as warm weather and increased vaccine availability herald the return of a (somewhat) more normalized season.
However, there are some new rules at some of the nation’s most popular hiking destinations that backpackers should be aware of. Last summer’s surge in new hikers resulted in instances of oversuse, overcrowding, and new measures to promote Covid safety. To prevent the first two from happening again, and to continue to guard against the virus, public lands across the country are altering their usual visitation rules.
The Denver Post
With Memorial Day looming and summer vacation travel not far behind, public land managers and the Colorado tourism industry are bracing for another summer of crowded trails, overflowing parking lots and likely damage to recreation resources.
Outdoor recreation in the state has grown steadily over the past decade, but following a year that saw an explosive surge driven by the pandemic, there are no signs that that trend is going to reverse.
“All the indices within the tourism industry, the travel industry, are telling us people are coming and lots of them,” said Scott Fitzwilliams, supervisor of the White River National Forest. “If it’s anything like last year and many predictions are that it will be more than last year we expect a lot of people on the forest.”