30 Years Later, Tennessee Pass Gets a Second Look I was recently at a social event and engaged in a conversation with a few interested folks about the Tennessee Pass rail corridor. It was a diverse group with different ideas and interests in future visions for the rail line. Ideas ranged from a rail to
Twelve Years to Understand One Trail The first few summers that I lived in our valley was an exciting time of exploration. Everything was new and I wanted to experience the surrounding outdoors and public lands to its fullest, whether it was heading into the Holy Cross Wilderness for a backpacking trip or mountain biking
Learning to Care for the Land They Grew Up On In 2025, fourteen local high school students representing nearly every high school in Eagle County joined the inaugural class of the Eagle County Youth Corps. Over two weeks, they learned trail work, teamwork, and stewardship on the same trails they grew up hiking. For participants,
Half a Century of Caring for Eagles Nest Wilderness President Gerald Ford signed the Eagles Nest Wilderness designation into law after a twelve year fight led by local citizens, including the late Bill Mounsey, who walked the boundary of what would become this protected landscape long before it had any legal protection at all. That
Think about the last time you stepped onto your favorite trail. Maybe you noticed the moisture on the dirt from an afternoon monsoon rain (woohoo!), the sound of birds singing, or the view of the Gore Range as you reached the top of a climb. Maybe you appreciated a conversation and the time with a
How VVMTA’s Trails and Stewardship Crew Cares for the Lands We Love On a Tuesday in June, VVMTA’s Trails and Stewardship Crew splits in two. Half the team is clearing downed trees on Cougar Ridge. The other half is two days into a river and campsite restoration project at Windy Point on the Upper Colorado
In 2016, community leader Lee Rimel got a phone call that changed Eagle County’s trails forever. A U.S. Forest Service (USFS) employee tipped him off quietly. The budget had been cut, and without funding for a summer ranger, 26 trained trail workers would have no supervision and no coordinated trail work that season. Rimel called
On a July morning at a Wilderness trailhead in the Vail Valley, the parking lot fills faster than most people expect. By 7 a.m. there are a handful of cars. By 9 the lot is full. By 10, vehicles stretch down the road in both directions. The people heading up the trail come from everywhere:
Trails Are More Than Recreation Last week, I went for a trail run on East Lake Creek. It felt great to be in Wilderness, moving along the traversing trail through a beautiful aspen stand with birds singing as happy as can be and lupines and larkspur just starting to bloom. The sound of the creek
By Ernest Saeger Fire season in Eagle County is part of the deal. Those of us who live and play here know the rhythm: restrictions go up, plans shift, and when the smoke clears, we get back outside. What most people have not considered is that the trails we hike, run, and ride on could
By Ernest Saeger This spring has come on fast. The valley is drying out early, and every trail in Eagle County looks like it should be open. So when you pull up to a trailhead and find a gate, the timing feels especially rough. You drove out here with a perfectly good plan, and the
How Many Users? A lot. And the numbers back that up. From January through March, our trail counters recorded more than 7,000 counts on Berry Creek Road and more than 3,000 counts on Lower Berry Creek Trail. That is about a 25% increase over the same three month period compared to the past five years.
VVMTA Monthly Vail Daily Column: April 1, 2026 Above photo of Boneyard trail from February 14, 2026. It has been hard to wrap my head around the lack of snow and the warm weather we experienced this winter. It has brought up a lot of emotions for me, like anxiety, fear, anger, and unrest. My
Our 2025 Annual Report is here. In a year that brought real challenges for trails, public lands, and the partners who help steward them, this community showed up in a big way with stewardship, advocacy, and impact across the valley. Read the full report below to see what we accomplished together and where we are
Connecting Community, Stewarding Trails, Leading with Purpose We are pleased to share the VVMTA 2025 to 2030 Strategic Plan, a focused roadmap that reflects where we are headed and what it will take to get there. This plan builds on a strong foundation of community support. Each year, our community contributes thousands of volunteer hours,
Arrowhead & Beaver Creek Seasonal Wildlife Closures From December 1 through April 15, Arrowhead, Beaver Creek, and Colorado Parks and Wildlife has implemented a seasonal wildlife closure on three Arrowhead area trails: Ute Dakota Apache (East side) We strongly support these seasonal closures as an important step to protect critical winter habitat for local wildlife.
The Vail Valley Mountain Trails Alliance is excited to offer a full-time Development Director position. The Development Director is VVMTA’s lead fundraiser, responsible for growing philanthropic revenue through relationship-based fundraising. This role builds and manages a portfolio of donors and potential donors, develops and executes an annual fundraising plan, leads donor-centered fundraising events, including the
This past year felt different. In Eagle County and across our trails and public lands, it often felt like every time we turned around there was something new to respond to. A plan to reorganize the Forest Service. Staffing cuts and shrinking budgets. A new transmission line proposal. Changes to camping in Homestake. A push
