Colorado and Boulder County boasts some of the most beautiful scenery and trails in the United States. BCHA spends time and money making sure Open Space, Parks, Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and National Forest trails will be available to horse owners now and in the future.

Beginning June 3rd, BCHA Trail Rides • Thursdays at 10am
Welcome Carole Arnold, BCHA Trail Ride Coordinator pro tem

Carole will be happy to lead trail rides for BCHA members and friends this summer. We will meet at 10:00 am each Thursday beginning on June 3rd and continuing through September. We are located at 13609 Gold Hill Road.  Please call to let me know that you are coming by 9:00 pm on Wednesday evenings. The length and difficulty of the rides will be determined by those participating. Bring lunch and rain gear.

If you are interested in attending please email me at: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it so that I can send directions and create a list of those who are planning to participate.

Carole Arnold 
303.507.0777

 

Photos: Patricia Jarvis Images

Happy Trails
Happy Trails is a compilation of trail logs in and around the Boulder County area. This publication includes about 140 pages of trail descriptions with maps and comes in an attractive binder. It also includes information on map reading, trail etiquette, safety, trailering and public land management.

$30 each

HAPPY TRAILS Volume I & II

HAPPY TRAILS Volume III

$30 each Click here to order now

An Invitation to Equestrians from Boulder County Parks & Open Space
You can make a difference as a Boulder County Parks & Open Space Park Host while riding some of the most beautiful open spaces in the west.  Give back to the trails you love while patrolling, being a uniformed presence, and answering visitor's questions.

More information &/or to register: contact Michael Bauer at   This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or 303-678-6219

Boulder Area Trails Coalition (BATCO) Map
The new BATCO map is the ONLY map that shows which trails are open to various user groups (pedestrian, equestrian, bike, OHV), as well as the type of trail surface (paved greenways, soft-surface, 4WD road). It also shows other recreational amenities (bike lanes, trailheads, ranger stations, urban parks, recreation centers, golf courses, fishing holes, campgrounds). It enables people to visualize and select their trail experience before setting out.

The new BATCO map is the ONLY map that contains "user-friendly" information on both sides about trail etiquette, public land stewardship, citizen stakeholder groups, agency contact information, and fun facts about Boulder County. It contains a montage of dazzling photographs and sketches of recreationists and nature, generating enthusiasm for sustainable outdoor recreation.

The new BATCO map is the ONLY map whose net sale proceeds go directly toward new trail construction and trail maintenance in Boulder County!

The BATCO Map measures 30" x 40" and is printed on waterproof, tear-resistant paper. Folded dimensions measure 7.5" x 4". Retail cost is $9.95. It is also available unfolded and rolled if requested. It's available in bike, equestion, outdoor sports, and hardware stores throughout the county. A list of retail suppliers is on the BATCO website under ordering information.

Ordering information: click here or contact Suzanne Webel, BATCO Vice President and Map Coordinator, at 303-485-2162 or   This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Colorado State Parks' Equestrian Trails
Equestrians throughout the state have many diverse choices for trail riding in Colorado State Parks and several parks have public corrals for those camping with horses. Click here to look for State parks with horse-friendly trails:   http://www.parks.state.co.us/

Trail Rider's Checklist -- Day Ride
Suggested activities for making your day trip a success have been compiled by Steve Deitemeyer, CF, Wildland Resources and BCHA. Checklist topics include Pre-trip Planning, Preparing Stock, Saddles and Tack, Saddle Equipment and Accessories, and Personal Gear. Detailed checklist can be found online, click here for PDF file.

A listing of available trail building and maintenance projects with Boulder County Parks and Open Space can be found on the volunteer page.

Open Space and Mountain Parks Off-Trail Permit Program  
The city of Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks (OSMP) Department will require off-trail permits for anyone who wants to go off-trail through Habitat Conservation Areas (HCAs) in the Western Mountain Parks, the Southern Grasslands and the Lower Boulder Creek. Maps of these HCAs and applications for permits can be found at www.osmppermits.org. Visitors who remain on designated trails in HCAs do not need a permit. Designated trails have been marked with signs that include a trail name.

HCAs are designated because of their exceptional resource value. They provide homes to some of Boulder's rarest and most sensitive plants and animals. The Off-Trail Permit Program was developed as part of the OSMP Visitor Master Plan and is designed to help minimize impacts to natural and cultural resources. OSMP plans to designate more HCAs in the system as more planning processes are completed.

For information on the Off-Trail Permit Program and OSMP, visit www.osmp.org or call (303) 441-3440. Lisa Nieman, City of Boulder, Open Space and Mountain Parks, 720-564-2007

Trail Advocacy
BCHA works continually to maintain the equestrian voice in the many trail legislative discussions that are being held throughout the county. We could use your help! Check out some of the opportunities for you to show your support for keeping trails open to equestrians!

Sharing Trails Safely With Horses
Many of the trails in Boulder County, and elsewhere, must be shared amongst many different user groups, including hikers, dog walkers, mountain bikers, and motorized vehicles. When such diverse groups inter-mix, a positive trail experience requires cooperation, understanding and courtesy by all users. BCHA produced a brochure to help educate trail users of some of the unique considerations that must be taken around horses. Read the text of BCHA's brochure, Sharing Trails Safely With Horses, to become familiar with the rules and courtesies expected of all trail users. This brochure is available in a full color slick paper format. If you would like one or a few mailed to you, just let us know at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

DOWNLOAD a PDF file of the Full Color Sharing Trails Brochure.

Boulder City Open Space & Mountain Parks: West Trail Study Area
The City of Boulder has just convened a new group of stakeholders to determine the fate of existing trails, future trails, and off-trail use of this very large area. Popular trails in the block include the Mesa Trail, South Boulder Creek Trail, Shanahan Ridge, Bear Canyon, Flagstaff, Chautauqua, Mt Sanitas, Wonderland Lake, and Foothills… all the Mountain Parks Trails as well as the foothills trails. The West TSA contains the Crown Jewels of the City of Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks. You can learn more about this project by clicking on this link to the City's Open Space and Mountain Parks, West Trail Study Area.

Extensive jockeying took place for a coveted seat at the West TSA table. The City hired a consultant to “facilitate” the process who, so far, has only seemed to make toprocess more contentious than it needed to be. For example, he would only allow five recreation stakeholders, five environmentalists, three neighborhood representatives, one cultural resources person, and two staff members, to be on the “community collaborative group.” The recreation people were prevented from representing their groups ( but the environmentalists got to choose multiple people from at least one small group). In mid-September a raucous caucus selected the winners, based on who showed up at the meeting. There were dozens of mountain bikers, trail runners, hikers, and rock climbers, each of whom were deemed “big enough” to get a seat at the table. As usual, equestrians were underrepresented in the political process and therefore we didn’t get a bona fide representative.

We did, however, get the next best thing. Perhaps thanks to all the advocacy work I’ve been doing on everyone’s behalf for the last fifteen years, and perhaps because they felt bad that we were not seated, the group of over 250 recreationists appointed yours truly by acclaim to be the single alternate for all the recreation groups, and specifically to be the alternate for the “Multi-Sport Group” which consists of runners, fisher-people, equestrians and other hangers-on.

It is estimated that the West TSA process will entail over 20 hours a month for more than a year. If every volunteer on the committee puts in the same amount of time, that comes to almost 3,500 hours of time spent on determining the fate of trails west of Broadway. If staff and the alternate(s)’ time is counted, you can more than double that time, to, say, 7,000 hours. Give it a time-value-of-money of $25 an hour, throw in the consultant’s fees, and we’ve got a project “worth” around a quarter of a million bucks.

Will it be worth it? Maybe. If you care about equestrian issues, provide me with your input, give me moral support, and stay in touch.

As always, please feel free to contact Suzanne for more information about trails and public issues: If you ever ride the swath of Open Space west of Broadway between Eldorado Springs and North Boulder, the West Trail Study Area concerns you! Suzanne Webel, 303-485-2162, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

The Feeder Canal Trail Bites the Dust
After more than 30 years of hearing all the pros and cons, in September 2009 the Board of County Commissioners finally gave up on a proposed multi-use trail along the Boulder Creek Feeder Supply Canal.

For some, this trail would have provided a continuous off-road link between Boulder and Lyons, 13 miles of picturesque recreational amenity offering sweeping views of the plains and mountains. Others saw the trail was seen as an abomination that would deprive its neighbors of their privacy and bring urban problems of crime, vandalism, and trespass to a rural area. Some were concerned that the trail would compromise water quality for the City of Boulder. Planners statewide saw the Canal as a missing link in the Front Range Trail, which may extend some day from New Mexico to Wyoming. Some environmentalists were worried that the trail would inconvenience wildlife living near it. For others, the trail posed unacceptable safety risks that the City and County appeared unwilling to address. The Canal’s owner was worried that the trail would inconvenience its maintenance operations.

In the end, the owner of the Canal, Northern Water, trumped all other parties by rescinding its trail development guidelines and making it clear that “permission to use the feeder canal for any part of the trail is unlikely to be forthcoming.” Probably nobody will ever know all the politics, back-room wrangling and deal-making that went into this decision.

BCHA discussed the Feeder Canal Trail at length many, many times. Years ago, we provided written documentation that horses don’t even carry the micro-organisms the water-quality folks were worried that we might introduce, thereby successfully convincing the planners to include equestrians in the trail mix. We offered ideas on how to accommodate horses and other trail users so that safety issues would be minimized. And, we insisted that, if the trail was built, it should have designated horse trailer parking at all trailheads. Finally, we argued that the Canal trail should not be considered as a replacement for any other planned north-south trails in Boulder County, and should connect to them all to form a meaningful trail system.

We hope that now the Feeder Canal Trail is dead, Boulder County will redouble its efforts and resources to build other long-sought trails, especially along old railroad grades such as the one west of Highway 36, the one from Boulder to Erie, and the one from Longmont to Lyons. These alignments will also provide “sweeping views of the plains and mountains,” will also have minimal environmental impact, and will make excellent – and safe – off road trail connections.

Please contact me if you would like to help champion those trail alignments – or others! Suzanne Webel, 303-485-2162, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Ride a Mile in My Boots
On Sunday, June 14, 2009, members of Boulder County’s Trail Stewardship teams – equestrians, mountain bikers, hikers, and trail runners – experienced the trail from a different perspective. Participants spent part of the morning riding horses, mountain bikes, walking, or running on a trail at Joder Arabian Ranch, a 347-acre ranch located in North Boulder, as part of Boulder County Parks and Open Spaces Partnership Initiative. Community leaders from these different recreational user groups gained first-hand knowledge about what different groups desire in a trail and why. Representatives from each group shared their perspectives and concerns, discussed their differences, and conceptualized possible solutions. Trail etiquette was reviewed as well.

Background: The Trail Stewardship program consists of seven teams who have volunteered to maintain some of Boulder County Parks and Open Space trails. Maintenance work includes light pruning, reshaping and restoring trail sections, constructing and maintaining water control devices, rut grading, weed pulling and possible modification to encourage on-trail use. Trail stewardship teams for the 2009 season include Backpacker Magazine, Boulder Area Trails Coalition, Boulder County Horse Association, Boulder Mountainbike Alliance, Boulder Trail Runners, Oskar Blues and Redstone Cyclery.

The original “Ride a Mile” concept was initiated by a grant written by Barb Haaland-Michaels and was partially funded through the 2009 Boulder Office of County Commissioners Volunteer Program Enrichment Awards, and coordinated by Karen Imbierowicz, Partnership Coordinator Boulder County Parks and Open Space.

Summary and Next Steps: From the new appreciation of other recreational groups idiosyncrasies and particulars on the trail a very positive outlook on sharing trails was created with all groups working together to establish what they thought might be workable solutions. A simplified handout is being created regarding trail etiquette to be distributed at bike shops and hopefully at trail heads. Currently there are at least 3 different handouts from 3 different organizations and it may be more effective to have one listing the most important things for users to remember. There was a discussion about classifying and labeling the difficulty of the trails. Another positive would be posting trail conditions on the websites of all recreational groups. The possibility of requiring trail infractors to participate in a “Ride a Mile…” type of event got a nod from everyone. All were in favor of holding an annual “Ride a Mile in My Boots” event. Greg Joder offered to host next year’s event. Possible 2010 participants include: bike patrollers, park hosts, birders, organization spokes people and journalists.

Proposed Mountain Bike Trail from Eldorado Canyon to Walker Ranch
Eldorado Canyon State Park in conjunction with Boulder Mountainbike Alliance (BMA) is currently exploring the possibility of a mountain bike trail that would connect Eldorado Canyon with the Walker Ranch trail.

Yes, you read that correctly -- a "mountain bike trail" -- not necessarily a shared-use trail, or a multiple-use trail, but possibly a mountain bike ONLY trail.  The Action Committee for Eldorado (ACE) is gathering the opinions of Boulder area climbers -- and others -- regarding this possible mountain bike trail. The exact location of the trail has yet to be determined, but will involve both existing and new sections of trail to minimize ero sion and potential conflict between different recreational user groups. Two obvious roadblocks to this plan are financing the construction of new trail on steep terrain and negotiating access through Boulder Open Space. Please let ACE know your opinions!

Inasmuch as there have been indications that BMA's trail proposal might actually exclude equestrians from "our" trail because their design would not be "sustainable" for horses, you are urged to participate NOW in the current ACE survey, and ALSO to contact the State Park directly at 303-441-3950. Tell them you want increased access for equestrians to Eldorado Canyon State Park! If you check the comments that have already come in, you will notice the effects of a very focused, aggressive promotional campaign on the part of BMA and the mountain bike community. Come on, equestrians! Get involved! BCHA built the original trail in Eldorado Canyon -- now we need YOU to participate in preserving (and possibly enhancing) our access to it. Vote/Comment by going to this website - then see Votes/Comments. Please scan the "see votes/comments" link for mine. But mine isn't enough -- they need to hear clearly from MANY members of the equestrian community. Please spread the word among other horse people. Each response is a vote, and if we don't get enough votes, you know what may happen.

Caribou Ranch
Reopens Sunday, July 1st, following spring closure.
The current trail system, 4.5 miles roundtrip, is open to hikers and equestrians only at varying months of the year. Mountain biking is not permitted due to restrictions specified in the purchase agreement. Also, dogs are not permitted on the open space for wildlife habitat and water quality protection. Please be aware that all park visitors are required to stay on-trail -- no off trail use is permitted. This regulation is in place until hazards are mitigated (e.g. mining test pits, buildings); cultural resources are inventoried, secured and/or restored; and Phase 2 trail construction is completed.

The 2,180-acre property offers visitors a rich tapestry of wetlands, meadows, streams, forests and woodlands. Caribou Ranch is a haven for wildlife where 50 species of mammals could potentially live and/or travel through the open space annually. This represents nearly half of all mammal species found in Boulder County. The most common ungulates are elk and mule deer. A moose group has been observed on portions of the property in the past two years. Also, signs of mountain lion, black bear, bobcat, coyote, red fox, marten, and short-tailed weasel have been found.

This open space also includes the Blue Bird Mine complex. Mining began in the 1870s and operations followed the boom and bust cycles of the industry until the 1960s. In the early 1900s, Blue Bird became a tourist destination on the newly completed Eldora Line of the Switzerland Trail of America. The site was a "whistle stop" during the summer months to a growing demand by city dwellers who wanted to experience the beauty of the mountains. You won't be able to explore the Blue Bird Mine complex beyond the fence at this time because of safety considerations. As July progresses, many of the plains and foothill wildflowers will disappear, but plant life at Caribou Ranch Open Space will just begin to bloom. If you would like to escape the sizzling summer days on the plains, come discover the diverse vegetation at Caribou Ranch Open Space. Caribou Ranch Open Space is located on County Road 126, approximately two miles north of Nederland. For additional information about the property, visit the department's web page www.co.boulder.co.us/openspace.

DIRECTIONS: From the Nederland traffic circle, go north 1.9 miles on the Peak to Peak Highway to County Road 126 (just past mile marker 34). Go west on CR126 about 1.2 miles. Parking and trailhead are on the north side of the road.

BCHA Adpots the Switzerland Trail at Caribou Ranch!
“Our” trail is officially called the Delonde Trail, named after one of the families that homesteaded the area in the 1800's and whose classic wood house still stands today in a meadow at Caribou, in mute tribute to their hard work making a living from this high mountain valley. Our commitment the last two years, during which time we need to put in a minimum of four trail days. We agree to remove trash along the trail, monitor weeds and erosion, note missing or vandalized signs, benches, and picnic tables, and look out for other hazards and problems. In addition, BCHA has earmarked funds for future trail construction at Caribou Ranch, and has a firm relationship with the Roundup Riders of the Rockies' Heritage and Trails Foundation which has agreed to provide additional funding should Boulder County request it.

We need volunteers to be our official “trail adopters”! This is a fun and satisfying way to show Boulder County that we are willing to be good stewards of the public lands we all enjoy. Please call Suzanne to sign up now! Suzanne Webel, Trails and Public Lands Chair, 303-485-2162

Caribou Ranch Annual Spring Closure April 1st through June 30
The annual closure at Caribou Ranch Open Space is in place to protect spring migratory birds, over winter elk survival, and elk calving and rearing activities at Caribou Ranch Open Space. The closure is for the entire property; no visitors are permitted. Approximately 50 species of mammals could potentially live and/or travel through the open space annually. This represents about 50 percent of all mammal species found in Boulder County. Please respect wildlife needs for solitude. Resident caretaker, park rangers, and county sheriff deputies who patrol the open space property can fine violators up to $300. Please help our department get the word out to residents by passing this message along to family and friends.