Friday, May 29, 2015

Celebrate National Trails Day On Colorado Trails

Denver- Colorado Parks and Wildlife encourages outdoor enthusiasts and recreationists to celebrate National Trails Day, Saturday, June 6 on Colorado trails.

Now in its 23rd consecutive year, and initiated by the American Hiking Society, National Trails Day, is the largest annual trails celebration and promises to deliver a wide variety of outdoor activities for the public to enjoy.

Get outdoors and experience the unique panorama of Colorado while horseback riding, hiking, biking or off-highway vehicle riding on more than 30,000 miles of trails throughout the state.Accept the challenge to explore a nearby trail, learn a new outdoor skills, or support the volunteer efforts of trail organizations with friends and family.

Recreation destinations may be closer than you think.

"There are lots of opportunities to get from urban, settled areas into more remote, rural areas on trails," said Colorado Parks and Wildlife's State Trails Manager Tom Morrissey. "Coloradans love their trails."

The latest state recreation plan determined that Coloradans spent 250 million activity days, or almost 50 days per person on a Colorado trail.

Many trails in Colorado lead right to the mountains, like Horsetooth in Fort Collins, or Pikes Peak Trail in Colorado Springs.

Not sure what trail to visit? The CPW Parks Guide highlights the many trails in the state parks that are non-motorized, Off Highway Vehicle, and Horse accessible. Go to: http://cpw.state.co.us/Documents/ParksBrochureWeb.pdf.

View Colorado Parks and Wildlife Trail Maps on the go by viewing the maps in the Avenza PDF Maps App on IOS and Android smartphones. PDF Maps is a mobile map application that enables you to access Colorado Parks and Wildlife Trail maps online using Apple's iOS or Google's Android smartphones or tablet. The best part is that your device's built-in GPS is used to track your location on the map.

Land trails aren't the only path. Barr Lake State Park offers a unique water trail experience. Water trails are recreational routes on waterways with a network of points for learning about aquatic habitat. Water trails provide both conservation and recreational opportunities. Barr Lake's water trail will open on July 11, 2015. Come by and try it out!

The CPW website also offers state parks maps that have trails labeled throughout the park for your convenience. This helps narrow down your search if you are looking to get away for the day or find a trail in a state park close to home.

User fees for Off Highway Vehicles and snowmobiles generates $5.5 million that is put back into the care and operation of trails. Nonmotarized trails depend upon a variety of resources like the federal highways Recreational Trails Program, National Parks System's Land & Water Conservation and Great Outdoors Colorado for more than $2.5 million to help build and maintain trail systems in Colorado.

For more information regarding trails in Colorado or the trails program go to: https://cpw.state.co.us/placestogo/Pages/Trails.aspx or visit www.NationalTrailsDay.org.

CPW is an enterprise agency, relying primarily on license sales, state parks fees and registration fees to support its operations, including: 42 state parks and more than 350 wildlife areas covering approximately 900,000 acres, management of fishing and hunting, wildlife watching, camping, motorized and non-motorized trails, boating and outdoor education. CPW's work contributes approximately $6 billion in total economic impact annually throughout Colorado.

For more news about Colorado Parks and Wildlife go to: http://cpw.state.co.us

For more information about Colorado Parks and Wildlife go to: http://cpw.state.co.us.


Contact Name: Manda Walters
Contact Phone: 303-866-3203 X4608