Town data shows lots of people use the nearby trails

So do bears and other wildlife!

By Mark Reaman 

For those taking a hike or bike ride on one of the local trails this week, you won’t be the only one. Crested Butte’s Parks, Recreation, Open Space and Trails (PROST) department has been gathering data on trail activity from in and around town, and initial numbers show there is a lot of use.

Cameras and counters are being used to gather information at places such as the trails to Green Lake, the Woods Walk, the Deli Trail and Rec Path. Town officials began monitoring the activity in 2024, and this year, 2025, will be the first season with full data. Some technical issues hampered data collections in 2024.

Aside from thousands of people regularly using the local trails as hikers and bikers, the cameras also showed that dogs and wildlife like bears, moose and elk are frequent users of nearby trails. 

“We have wildlife cameras at Town Ranch in addition to our trail cameras. This data will help inform management decisions as we continue to see increased trail usage,” said Crested Butte PROST director Janna Hansen.

Some numbers from this spring and summer include the following: in 52 days of data collection, 1,066 hikers, 5,500 bikers and 193 dogs were recorded on the Deli Trail; in 25 days of data collection at the Woods Walk, 6,226 hikers were recorded along with 2,930 bikers and 1,207 dogs; the Green Lake Trail recorded 676 hikers, 391 bikers and 137 dogs in just 20 days.

The PROST report stated that the CB Land Trust used a similar camera system to gather data at various locations in 2024 and 7,513 users were recorded on the Baxter Gulch Trail from June to September. CBLT stewardship director Jon Mugglestone said the 2024 numbers broke down to 4,782 bike riders and 2,731 hikers. 

He said the CBLT Gunsight Bridge counter captured 43,965 users while a laser counter on the Lower Loop showed 84,655 hikers and bikers. 

“At the Lower Loop and Gunsight Bridge locations, recreational use is tallied using simpler counters that do not allow for differentiating user types, and aren’t too smart about over-or under-counting “out and back” users, large groups etc.,” Mugglestone explained. “As such, these numbers are likely not very accurate measures of actual recreational use. Rather, I think they may be more useful as a measure of proportion of use at the northern and southern ends of the Lower Loop Trail system.”

The biggest number came from a Mt. Crested Butte laser counter located on the Rec Path near the Slate River Bridge in Crested Butte. That counter showed 1,503,909 users recorded in that location from January to October. 

Mt. Crested Butte parks supervisor Addison Ives had the same caution in terms of accurate recreational numbers. He said, “The number is of the overall users. So, if the user walked past the laser line walking north and then turned around and passed it again heading south the user would be counted twice.

“The laser counter does not pick up bikes vs. walkers vs. runners vs. animals vs. vehicles,” Ives continued. “So, the number could be inflated if an animal crossed this section several times. The Nordic Center does grooming operations, so the counter will pick up the snowcat grooming, and various other items like this could be another factor in the numbers. There is also the possibility of the counter itself having issues, as the jump in users from last year was significant. Nevertheless, there are a lot of people using that trail.”

Hansen said the goal is to obtain information that can help with better future decisions. “As visitor and resident numbers continue to increase, we want to understand the use so we can best manage the impact to our recreational amenities and natural environment. Balancing recreational access and conservation of natural resources through proper stewardship is our goal,” concluded Hansen.