Potential solutions to reduce overcrowding at trailheads

On July 8, the Board of Boulder County Commissioners held a town hall meeting to discuss increased recreational visitation to Boulder County Parks and Open Space properties.

The 90-minute Zoom meeting also discussed programs and activities that are being hosted by area partners and the county and answered questions from residents. County commissioners, Matt Jones, Claire Levy, and Marta Loachamin were joined by interim co-director of Boulder County Parks and Open Space, Jeff Moline, as well as Chief Park Ranger Bevin Carithers and Boulder County Sheriff's Office special operations commander Randy Wilber.

Moline opened the meeting by sharing that 2020 was a record year for visitation at Boulder County Parks and Open Space.

"We had 2.1 million visits over all of our system for the whole year. In that one year, that was a 44% increase over the numbers that we saw in 2019, which were also already high," said Moline.

For 2021, Moline said that the most recent tallies seem to indicate that visitation is down from the 2020 numbers although still higher than 2019 visitation, indicating that while 2020 might have been an outlier due to COVID-19, park visitation is steadily growing and likely to continue trending upward in the future.

"Generally, what we're seeing across our whole system is a 41% increase over 2019, so while last year was a record number, this year we're starting out not seeing quite those record numbers, but numbers that represent an increase over what we had been seeing in 2019," said Moline

The increased visitation during 2020 resulted in more crowded trailheads as well as limited parking, which often led to people parking on streets, in neighborhoods, or blocking access for emergency vehicles. Policing the trailheads falls to the Boulder County Sheriff's Office (BCSO).

Commander Wilbur noted that between May 2021 and June 2021, BCSO turned around 2,600 cars headed to the Hessie Trailhead due to limited parking. Similarly, BCSO currently has a checkpoint set up at Dowdy Draw outside of Eldorado Canyon State Park to try to limit the number of cars driving in once the parking area is full. Between June 5 and June 27, they turned around 794 cars.

Wilbur also noted that search and rescue efforts, which also were much higher in 2020 with 256 incidents as compared to 198 in 2019, often saw people getting into trouble further in the backcountry as they tried to get to more remote locations. Search and rescue teams were often faced with multiple rescues happening at once, a new scenario that these volunteer organizations have not had to deal with in the past.

Moline acknowledged that parking and trailhead overcrowding presents challenges for visitors, but also noted that the on-the-trail experience still tends to be overall positive.

"Once people get on our trails and at least move away from that front country area, generally we have visitors that are still pretty happy with their experiences on our trails," he said.

One question was whether or not Boulder County Parks and Open Space would consider some kind of reservation system in the future, similar to Rocky Mountain National Park.

Carithers noted that while the county is in very preliminary discussions, he sees a lot of operational and staffing issues that would likely make a reservation system impractical and costly. Instead, he said the county is focused on possible solutions such as shuttle services or ways to let visitors know when a parking lot is full. To this end, the county has installed cameras at several trailheads so visitors can check the lot in real-time as well as added charts showing peak visitation hours, information that can be viewed on the park's website.

Commissioner Levy said that a reservation system would be difficult to stand up since most of the parks don't have a single point of entry and would also require additional staffing resources.

"I would be really reluctant to limit access unless we can't solve the parking issue in some way. We all want to get out, and we can do a lot more to direct people to other open spaces and areas that don't have as much pressure," she said.

Similarly, when asked whether Boulder County Parks and Open Space would consider charging an entry fee for out-of-county visitors, Moline said that though the county has had this discussion in the past, they are not currently looking at charging entrance fees.

"Our program has a long tradition of being free to visitors, and since we utilize sales tax fees that are levied for both residents and people who visit our county, we've always had this element of equity and inclusion to having our properties be available without fees," he said

The town hall also addressed questions of ATV use, invasive species and pest management practices, inclusivity programming, new infrastructure, and other initiatives to better educate visitors coming to these public open spaces.

Across all these topics, all participants emphasized how, in most cases, Boulder County Parks and Open Spaces is working with varied and diverse stakeholders, including the U.S. Forest Service, the City of Boulder, other county agencies, and residents. With the record visitation of 2020, this collaboration across agencies was key to success for various departments.

"One of the things we've been doing is working more comprehensively with all the land management agencies making sure that we're not taking measures in one area that's going to then cause a problem or overcrowding in another particular area," Moline said. "We're trying to work together as a group of partner agencies in the county."