Brief by Central Staff
Recreation – August 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine
Thanks to the fires and the fire danger, all manner of restrictions have been placed on public lands this summer. Generally, all outside fires have been forbidden.
But some went further. The biggest restriction was the closure of the entire Pike National Forest (essentially, the lands around South Park) on June 28. That didn’t just mean no campfires — it also meant no camping, no hiking, no driving on anything other than state or county roads, and National Guard soldiers on patrol to enforce the ban.
There was some confusion when the ban was announced, because even if Pike and San Isabel are separate national forests, they are usually managed as a unit; for instance, the press releases almost always say “Pike-San Isabel National Forest.”
As it turned out, San Isabel (Leadville to Westcliffe) was not closed, even if neighboring Pike was.
However, strong restrictions were proposed for San Isabel by the Cañon City Forest Service office. The plan would have closed nearly all campgrounds, as well as most hiking trails and the like, in Chaffee, Custer, Frémont, and Lake counties, effective from July 1 until some rain arrived.
But the Denver office denied the Cañon office request for closures. “A multi-agency committee, of which the Forest Service is only one component, disagreed with the request,” Cañon forester Mike Smith told the Wet Mountain Tribune. The governor’s office and the Forest Service regional office opposed the added restrictions.
So San Isabel stayed open. Pike remained totally closed until July 12, when several campgrounds re-opened, among them Kenosha Pass, Burning Bear, and Kelsey. Also opened were the Elevenmile Canyon and Jefferson Canyon recreation areas.
Even if the campgrounds are open, however, at press time the rest of the forest remained closed to hiking, biking, picnicking, and all off-road travel.
But two state parks that had been closed — Eleven Mile and Mueller — did open their backcountry trails in mid-July.
San Isabel has been lucky so far, with no serious fires and no closures. But the confusion over what’s open and what isn’t, along with a governor who announced that the entire state was on fire, can’t have done much good for this tourist season.
