Memorial Day in Colorado mountains to look different due to fire, reservations and COVID-19 Miles Blumhardt, Fort Collins Coloradoan
Cameron Peak Fire scars Poudre Canyon lives, landscape
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The pandemic and the Cameron Peak Fire have put a significant crimp on recreating on the Roosevelt National Forest and in Rocky Mountain National Park over the past year, with lingering impacts continuing this year.
While COVID-19 restrictions have largely been lifted, visitors to the Canyon Lakes Ranger District of the national forest and the national park will be impacted visually and physically as the busy Memorial Day weekend approaches.
The pandemic and the Cameron Peak Fire have put a significant crimp on recreating on the Roosevelt National Forest and in Rocky Mountain National Park over the past year, with lingering impacts continuing this year.
While COVID-19 restrictions have largely been lifted, visitors to the Canyon Lakes Ranger District of the national forest and the national park will be impacted visually and physically as the busy Memorial Day weekend approaches.
The nearly 209,000-acre fire, the largest in state history, has closed large sections of the national forest and park. The burn scar is visible in large swaths of mountainsides along the Poudre River from Rustic west to Chambers Lake and in the park.
Rocky Mountain National Park reopened more trails this week after the park was devastated by multiple wildfires nearly seven months ago.
In October, RMNP fully closed for several weeks after it was hit by the Cameron Peak and East Troublesome fires. About 30,000 acres, or 9% of the park, burned in the fires.
Since then, more than 50% of the park has reopened.
On the east side of the park, the North Fork, North Boundary, Stormy Peaks, Mummy Pass and the Emmaline Lake trails reopened this week.
Some, but not all, of the trails in the Upper Beaver Meadows area and most of the trails in the Moraine Park area have also reopened.
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Keeper Brandi Taylor checks the mouth of Nick the sea lion at the Denver Zoo on April 21. The zoo had to close for almost three months this year due to the pandemic. (David Zalubowski, AP file)
Every year, we pull traffic data to see which stories were read the most, and every year, we’re pretty surprised by what Coloradans are most interested in.
This year, you can probably guess the subject matter people read about the most.
A lot of our most popular stories weren’t lengthy exposes or buzzy pieces about Casa Bonita or the forthcoming Meow Wolf Denver, they were brief explanations of how complicated COVID-19 regulations affected our everyday lives. The fact that so many people read those stories speaks to how frantic and confused we all felt amid the constantly changing guidelines.