Sangre de Cristos - South Colony and Broken Hand Pass
RMFI first began working in the South Colony Lakes Basin in 1997 to create a sustainable trail and camping infrastructure in this highly visited alpine basin, which provides access to four popular 14ers. In 2021, RMFI completed critical trail improvements along the South Colony and South Colony Spur Trails, including clearing hazard trees and blowdown, replacing and repairing timber bridges, trimming vegetation to better delineate the trail corridor, and improving off-trail drainage. A noteworthy project included enhancing the sustainability of the South Colony Creek crossing by removing old timbers and replacing them with a rock path.
From 2022 to 2024, RMFI began trail work on Broken Hand Pass. This pass has been prone to rockslides, which made the route difficult to follow and resulted in increased off-trail travel across fragile alpine tundra. Our crews worked on trail delineation, rock steps, retaining walls, erosion control structures, and wayfinding cairns to improve the sustainability of this vital route.
A few project high lights over the four years on this project, RMFI completed:
- 144 steps
- 88.58 tons of rock moved for steps/retinaing walls/etc
- 2,423 linear feet of retaining wall
- And more
NATIVE LANDS
We recognize the following nations, whose traditional territories we worked on in the Sangre de Cristo Mountain Range:
- Núu-agha-tʉvʉ-pʉ̱ (Ute)
- Cheyenne
- Jicarilla Apache
WORK OBJECTIVES
- Complete improvements along approximately 4 miles of trail (South Colony, South Colony Spur) to enhance sustainability and drainage.
- Trail delineation along Broken Hand Pass, including wayfinding cairns.
- Trail improvement to Broken Hand Pass, including rock steps, retaining walls and erosion control.
PROJECT PARTNERS AND FUNDERS
- National Forest Foundation
- U.S. Forest Service
- Colorado 4x4 Rescue and Recovery
- CORE - Colorado Offroad Enterprise
