Tuesday, March 19, 2024

The Lawn Lake Flood

In 1903 a 26-foot high earthen dam was built at Lawn Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park to enhance the natural lake from 16.4 acres to 48 acres, in order to help with crop irrigation in the Loveland area. Nearly 80 years later, on July 15, 1982, the dam catastrophically failed, while releasing more than 300 million gallons of water down the Roaring River valley. Some witnesses claim the failure created a wall of water 25 to 30 feet high! As the water ripped through the landscape it created the Alluvial Fan near the confluence with Fall River in Horseshoe Park. After killing three campers the water rushed down Elkhorn Avenue in Estes Park (see photos below) before stopping at Lake Estes. In all, damages to the area totaled roughly $31 million. Even today sections of the Roaring River's high gully walls remain unstable and prone to sudden collapse. The dam failure led to the removal of three other man-made dams within the park, including Pear Lake, Sandbeach Lake and Bluebird Lake.

Evidence of some the destruction from the infamous Lawn Lake Flood are still on display along the Lawn Lake Trail, but the lake itself appears to have completely recovered. In my opinion, Lawn Lake is one of the more scenic lakes in the park.
Photos courtesy of the Denver and Coloradoan Libraries.



Jeff
RockyMountainHikingTrails.com
HikinginGlacier.com
TetonHikingTrails.com

Ramble On (2nd edition book on the rich history of hiking)
Exploring Glacier National Park
Exploring Grand Teton National Park

Monday, March 18, 2024

Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission approves 29 Outdoor Recreational Trail Grants

Governor Polis and the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission announced trail-funding allocations for the 2024 Non-Motorized Trail and Land and Water Conservation Grants at its meeting in Denver on March 13. The Commission unanimously approved the grants.

“Colorado’s hiking trails are a major way we experience and enjoy our great outdoors. Whether it’s hiking through your favorite state park, exploring a new corner of our state, or taking a walk with family and friends, we are now helping more people get outside and have healthy fun by expanding trails and increasing access to them across Colorado,” said Governor Jared Polis.

There were a total of 29 Outdoor Recreational Grants funded this year totaling $7,918,274. Statewide Trails Program Manager Fletcher Jacobs highlighted the Colorado Recreational Trails Committee’s wildlife review process which emphasizes the importance of balancing wildlife and habitat needs with recreation needs in Colorado.

CPW is excited to also launch a new Trail Stewardship pilot program with additional support from Great Outdoors Colorado. This program provides funding specifically to support trail stewardship crews hired by land managers and non-profits who focus on maintenance work throughout Colorado. The State Trails Program will utilize $500,000 in funding from Great Outdoors Colorado to start this pilot based on the “Good Management” concept, which the OHV Program has operated successfully for trail maintenance and resource protection.

The Non-Motorized Trails Grant Program is a multi-agency partnership that includes CPW, Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO), Colorado Lottery, and the Federal Recreational Trails Program (RTP). The LWCF Grant Program is the state-managed 50:50 matching grant program for the acquisition and development of public outdoor recreation areas and facilities. Funds are appropriated annually by Congress to the National Park Service and divided among the states.

Grant Stats:

Construction: 4 grants totaling $751,377

Maintenance: 9 grants totaling $919,521

Planning: 5 grants totaling $172,956

Support: 1 grant totaling $45,000

Land and Water Conservation Fund: 5 grants totaling $5,478,998

You can click here to review some of the highlights from this year’s awarded projects.



Jeff
RockyMountainHikingTrails.com
HikinginGlacier.com
TetonHikingTrails.com

Ramble On (2nd edition book on the rich history of hiking)
Exploring Glacier National Park
Exploring Grand Teton National Park

Saturday, March 16, 2024

Lion Lake No. 1

For whatever reason, I never took the chance to hike to Lion Lake No. 1 until just a few years ago. Wow! What was I waiting for? The rugged subalpine landscape that surrounds this lake offers some of the most beautiful scenery in Rocky Mountain National Park, while also arguably making it the most scenic lake in Wild Basin:




Jeff
RockyMountainHikingTrails.com
HikinginGlacier.com
TetonHikingTrails.com

Ramble On (2nd edition book on the rich history of hiking)
Exploring Glacier National Park
Exploring Grand Teton National Park

Thursday, March 14, 2024

USDA invests nearly $66M to improve roads, trails, and water quality

Earlier this week the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced nearly $66 million to improve water quality, roads, trails, bridges and fish habitat on national forests and grasslands nationwide.

With more than 160,000 miles of trails, 7,200 trail bridges, 6,700 road bridges, and 370,000 miles of roads in national forests, this investment will support urgently needed maintenance and repairs on roads and trails, including road decommissioning, and removal of barriers to fish passage, increasing resiliency on our forest lands across the country.

National forests are also home to more than 400,000 miles of streams and 3 million acres of lakes. Approximately 80 million people rely on clean drinking water sources that originate on national forests and grasslands. These investments will protect infrastructure and support healthy watersheds in national forests so that they can continue to provide clean drinking water to the people and communities that depend on them.

Of the total funding, $37.5 million will be invested in the Legacy Roads and Trails Program, which improves water quality, restores habitat for threatened and endangered fish or wildlife, and maintains access for visitors, businesses and wildland firefighters on national forests and grasslands.

$28.1 million will be invested through the Collaborative Aquatic Restoration Program to support a second round of projects to improve water quality, prevent the spread of E. coli, restore fish passage for threatened, endangered, and other aquatic species, increase landscape resiliency, and eliminate high sediment loads in drinking water systems.

For a complete list of projects being funding in fiscal year 2024, visit Legacy Roads and Trails and Collaborative Aquatic Landscape Restoration.



Jeff
RockyMountainHikingTrails.com
HikinginGlacier.com
TetonHikingTrails.com

Ramble On (2nd edition book on the rich history of hiking)
Exploring Glacier National Park
Exploring Grand Teton National Park

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Road improvement projects to impact Black Canyon

Road improvement projects at Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park will begin in 2024 and continue through 2025. These much-needed improvements will create significant impacts in accessing the park. Visitors should plan on delays of up to 30 minutes during their visit and a significantly reduced number of parking spots available.

A road improvement project will begin on the South Rim in late March 2024. This project will include road rehabilitation from the park boundary on Highway 347 to the visitor center, approximately 1.8 miles (2.8 km) of roadway. This work will last approximately seven months. In 2025, there will be continuation of road rehabilitation work from the visitor center to the end of the South Rim Drive and a pavement preservation project that will impact access to and parking at overlooks along the South Rim Drive and South Rim campground availability.

This year the project is funded through the Federal Lands Transportation Program (FLTP). Next year's project is funded through the Federal Highways Administration's Pavement Preservation Program. After the summer of 2025, all paved roads at South Rim will either be completely resurfaced or have a preservation treatment such as crack sealing and patching and then a chipseal or micro seal applied. The result will be a greatly improved roadway for visitors to the national park.

Please use extreme caution and patience while traveling on park roadways, especially during construction. Plan extra time for visiting the park during the roadwork. Crews will be working Monday through Friday in daylight hours and roads will be alternating one-way traffic.

Consider alternative recreational areas during construction. Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park is co-managed with neighboring Curecanti National Recreation Area, encompassing Blue Mesa Reservoir. Curecanti also has numerous hiking trails, all of which are dog friendly. Several trails lead into the gorge to the Gunnison River and to the reservoirs. Besides being well known for its fishing and kayaking, the recreation area offers a variety of camping experiences and spectacular stargazing. The National Park Service thanks you in advance for your patience during construction activities.

More information about camping and recreational opportunities at both parks can be found at www.nps.gov/blca and www.nps.gov/cure.



Jeff
RockyMountainHikingTrails.com
HikinginGlacier.com
TetonHikingTrails.com

Ramble On (2nd edition book on the rich history of hiking)
Exploring Glacier National Park
Exploring Grand Teton National Park