City of Boulder to close portion of Gunbarrel Trail

Beginning March 11, 2024, when construction began on the new Vesper Trail, portions of the East Boulder-Gunbarrel Trail will be closed for use between the hours of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily through June. The trail will be closed from the Boulderado Drive and Cambridge Street Access Point in the Heatherwood subdivision to a point approximately one mile east.

According to a City of Boulder news release, the Vesper Trail will be "a new 1.5-mile trail section that will be built on Gunbarrel Hill near the intersection of 75th Street and Lookout Road." The new trail will "provide improved visitor experiences in the area to support a variety of uses, protect bird nesting habitat, provide visitors views of the Front Range and the Continental Divide, and allow the public to observe ground-nesting birds in the area – including the Vesper Sparrow."

Phillip Yates, Communications Senior Program Manager for the City of Boulder's Open Space and Mountain Parks Department (OSMP), said, "There are a lot of undesignated paths that people have been accessing. New trails [like the Vesper Trail] are built in over-used areas and create visitor experiences people want and use to protect native habitats." This project will address the need to restore habitat where people have been creating their own social trails in an area without a previously designated trail.

The new trail, as well as the existing East Boulder-Gunbarrel Trail, are located on City of Boulder Open Space, which was acquired by the city in the 1980s.

OSMP estimates that construction will culminate in late June of 2024 barring significant impacts due to weather delays. More information can be found on the OSMP webpage at https://bouldercolorado.gov/projects/vesper-trail-construction-and-ecological-restoration.