74 Mile Trail from Crested Butte to Carbondale Looks Promising

As part of the Colorado the Beautiful Initiative, a 74 mile trail from Crested Butte to Carbondale looks promising. The Initiative was proposed in 2015 by Governor John Hickenlooper and stated that by 2016, sixteen individual trails would be identified as priority projects with the goal of connecting existing trails and making a larger more accessible trail system in the state. Now, the sixteen priority trails have been named and the Crested Butte to Carbondale trail made the list. The proposal also includes work on the Front Range Trail – a continuous path from the Wyoming border to the New Mexico Border as well as a trail along the historic Arkansas River Stage and Rail. All sixteen projects along with maps of the proposed trails can be found on the Colorado Department of Natural Resources page or by clicking here. The 74 mile trail from Crested Butte to Carbondale will go through Crystal and Redstone before ending in Carbondale. In Carbondale, trail users can then connect to the existing Rio Grand Trail, which runs between Aspen and Glenwood Springs, or hook up with the Glenwood Canyon Trail, once riding to Glenwood. The “16 in 2016” plan will open up possibilities for human powered travel around the state by creating a larger state-wide trail system with less dead ends.