Few trails in the country can match the scale and beauty of the Colorado Trail. Stretching 567 miles from Denver to Durango, this single-track route crosses eight mountain ranges, six national forests, and five river systems, offering hikers a journey through some of the most spectacular landscapes in the American West. Rocky Mountain PBS recently released a short documentary exploring the trail’s past, present, and future.
The trail’s origins trace back to 1974, when Gudy Gaskill, widely known as the Mother of the Colorado Trail, became its driving force. She organized volunteer crews and secured approvals from the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to make the route a reality. By 1987, the trail was connected end to end, built almost entirely through volunteer labor.
Today, the Colorado Trail Foundation maintains the route through weeklong volunteer trail crews and a trail adopter program, with roughly 116 individuals responsible for keeping smaller sections clear and passable. The trail also carries deep cultural significance, running through lands long traveled by the Ute people, who relied on these routes for hunting and seasonal migration.
Wildfire poses the most serious threat to the trail’s future, with foundation leadership warning that large sections could be impacted over the next one to two decades. Recent reductions in the federal workforce, particularly among Forest Service personnel, have added further uncertainty to how those threats will be managed.
Despite the challenges the trail remains open and well-maintained, continuing to draw visitors from across the country and around the world.
