Bring the kids!
A unique trail system near Redstone, privately owned and built but covered by a Pitkin County trail easement, will host a soft opening on July 10.
Coal Basin Ranch demonstrates how trails can be an integral part of restoration, showing how restoration and recreation can come together to broaden public perspectives about stewardship.
Coal Basin Ranch’s family friendly trail system includes approximately 5 miles of cross country single-track that climb along a mountain creek through Douglas fir and spruce and descends a fun flow trail through the aspen, as well as jump lines, pump tracks around ponds and a Strider track for the youngest mountain bikers.
The trail system is on private property 3.8 miles west of Redstone, Colorado, and is the site of five inactive coal mines, which Mid-Continent Resources operated from 1956–1991 yielding 23 million tons of coking coal for U.S. steel mills.
Designed as a demonstration site, Coal Basin Ranch shows how recreation and restoration can come together to promote healthy landscapes and healthy lifestyles. It is a highly impacted area from the previous industrial coal mine. The bench-cut trails themselves are part of the restoration efforts, helping to strategically guide erosion in the geologically tenuous terrain. More than 1,000 trees have been planted, water ways restored, native grass seed spread, soils improved, and mining and other trash hauled out to establish the trail system.
The vision for Coal Basin Ranch is that it will be a valuable community resource that will advance a healthy landscape and healthy lifestyles, giving people a place to connect with nature through outdoor recreation. It will provide a location for local schools that have mountain biking programs and/or outdoor education programs to have an optimized place to ride, run and hike while learning about restoration, sustainably built trails, stewardship and conservation.
The trail system will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. It is located at the end of Coal Creek Road, 3.8 miles west of Redstone. Please park in the Coal Basin Ranch parking lot. For more information, call the ranch phone at 970-510-6857.
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