Phase 1 Development Funded!

The Stage and Rail Trail is becoming a reality, bringing the history of the valley to modern travelers.

April 20, 2016 – Stage and Rail Trail receives Colorado Parks and Wildlife Trails program grant for beginning Phase 1 development of the trail.

GARNA has just been notified it will receive $26,000 to cover the first of an anticipated two years’ work on Phase 1 implementation of the Stage and Rail Trail. These funds will be augmented by cash and in-kind matching funds from local partners and the privately-contributed S&RT Support Fund. As early as late summer 2016, the Stage and Rail team will take critical steps necessary to begin this multi-year 64-mile trail project. Chief among these is contracting a professional Project Coordinator and convening the trail coordination body under GARNA that is anticipated in the draft Master Plan. With this coordination structure in place, the potential management partners – Lake and Chaffee Counties, the towns of Salida, Buena Vista and Leadville, the Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Area and its BLM co-managers, and the Leadville District of the US Forest Service San Isabel NF – will be encouraged to formally designate the trail within their jurisdictions.

Meanwhile the S&RT is engaging with the Interagency Trails Council that Governor Hickenlooper has established to facilitate state-level assistance to the 16 Trails in 2016 (see below). A presentation was made to that Council April 11 in Denver which included a summary and identification of remaining challenges and areas in which assistance from the Council will be appreciated. On that Council are top-level representatives of state agencies including DNR’s Fish, Wildlife and Parks, GOCO, DOLA, CDOT, the Office of Outdoor Recreation Industry, Colorado Pedals and others. Areas the S&RT is requesting assistance on include provision of GOCO funding for conservation easements on some private lands along the S&RT, funding for physical development activities beyond Phase 1, and encouragement to the Union Pacific Railroad to allow some use of their rights of way for the S&RT and other recreational proposals.

Stay tuned to this page for updates during the summer while we finalize the first year budget and activities!