Mountain bikers in Boulder County, Colorado say they were blindsided by a pilot project to limit bike access to popular trails on an alternating schedule. The County Commission says the goal of the project is to test “alternating usage on select trails to potentially improve safety and enhance the experience for users.” However, many in the cycling community are upset about potential restrictions in an area that already has limited trails that are open to bikes.
“The biggest fear would be just general loss of access,” said Wendy Sweet, Executive Director for the Boulder Mountainbike Alliance. “The mountain bike community was pretty disappointed. We didn’t know there was an issue. We hadn’t been consulted.”
Singletracks has also reached out to another local cycling advocacy group, the Greater Nederland Area Riders, for comment, but has not received a response as of press time.
Pilot project seeks to address user conflicts
The pilot project is designed to “address trail‑use conflicts, improve safety, or enhance visitor experience” at trail systems managed by the Boulder County Parks and Open Space Division. According to survey data collected at various parks within the county, roughly 4% of park visitors reported a conflict with another trail user during their visit. Most of those conflicts were between hikers and bikers.
Betasso Preserve is the only Boulder County park that currently enforces an alternating trail use schedule, a policy which was implemented in 2004, according to Sweet. Though the trails at Betasso are multi-use, bikers are restricted from using the trails on Wednesdays and Sundays. Hikers and equestrians may use the trails any day of the week. Despite the implementation of an alternating use schedule, survey data shows that 5% of Betasso visitors reported a conflict during their visit, which is higher than the 4% average for all Boulder County parks and open spaces.
The county reports that the majority of visitors to popular open spaces with multi-use trails — Betasso Preserve, Hall Ranch, and Heil Valley Ranch — are cyclists.
Overall, visits to Boulder County parks are down significantly from a peak of 2.1 million in 2020. Since 2024, visits continued to decline, from 1.8 million to 1.7 million in 2025.
“This pilot doesn’t seem to have data to support there’s an issue, and is suggesting the narrowest of possible solutions,” said Sweet.
Popular mountain bike trail networks could be included in the test
At this stage, County Commissioners are still collecting feedback for the pilot program and have not announced which trails might be included in the test. However, an online survey asks respondents where they’d like to see alternating usage tested, and the options include Hall Ranch, Heil Valley Ranch, and Walker Ranch. The online survey will be available through May 19.
Many community members reportedly showed up at a recent Town Hall meeting in Nederland to voice their concerns. An upcoming Open House is scheduled for Wednesday, May 13 from 5:30–7p so that residents can learn about the pilot program and share feedback.
The County Commission says the pilot program, if implemented, could potentially run through the end of this year. Once the trial is complete, county staff and commissioners will assess the program’s effectiveness and recommend any permanent changes.
There are alternatives to reducing trail user conflict
Sweet of the Boulder Mountainbike Alliance makes it clear the group does not support the pilot program.
“We don’t believe any additional alternating use is needed within our county,” she said. “We do think that there are specific trails they’re concerned about that happen to be multi-use and bi-directional, and we can use this opportunity to see what other tools we have to maybe redo a trail so it has better sight lines, or make it a loop.”
In addition to one-way trails, land managers have a number of tools at their disposal to reduce trail user conflicts. Tsali Recreation Area in North Carolina alternates the direction of travel for trail user groups based on the day of the week, and all users are free to use the trails every day. Many trail networks feature bike-only trails to limit conflict, though Boulder County has not designated any bike-only trails, according to Sweet. The County has said the pilot program will not create new or parallel trails.
Though the proposed pilot program has the potential to limit bike access, it could have the opposite effect. Sweet estimates that 95% of the attendees at an April open house to discuss the project were mountain bikers. There was a map on the wall showing trails within the county, and attendees were asked to place a sticker showing where they would like to see alternating trail usage tested.
Sweet notes that all of the stickers were placed on the hiking-only trails.
14 Comments
May 8, 2026
Boulder County's own data undermines this pilot before it starts. Betasso Preserve has enforced alternating use since 2004. Its conflict rate? 5%, higher than the 4% system-wide average the pilot is trying to address. The county's proposed solution has been running for over twenty years at one property and the numbers are worse there than everywhere else. That should end the conversation.
It doesn't, because this pilot was never really about conflict data. It's about a department that is a decade behind its peers and has defaulted to restriction as a management philosophy. The root cause of trail conflict isn't user behavior, it's multi-use trail design. A single trail trying to serve mountain bikers, hikers, and equestrians simultaneously can't be optimized for any of them. Bikers need flow, varied grades, and technical features. Hikers want stable footing and viewpoints. Equestrians need appropriate footing for horse behavior. Forcing all three onto the same infrastructure and then acting surprised when friction results is a design failure, not a user problem. The solution is purpose-built trails for each group, not scheduling who gets to use the same inadequate trail on different days.
As your own article notes, BCPOS has not designated a single bike-only trail across its entire system. Zero. Meanwhile it manages properties where hikers-only trails already exist. The department has spent decades building a trail caste system where hikers get dedicated infrastructure and mountain bikers are handed the leftovers and told to be grateful. Now, with the pilot, they want to restrict even those.
It's also worth noting that Commissioner Claire Levy told the Boulder Reporting Lab she personally directed staff to focus on Heil Valley Ranch because some hikers said they felt they couldn't go there on weekends. At a property where mountain bikers account for 59% of observed activity, that's a significant policy intervention on behalf of the minority user group, apparently without reference to the 4% conflict rate her own department published.
Mountain bikers are also the primary volunteer workforce building and maintaining trails across the country. In Boulder County, that community is treated as the problem rather than the solution. Organizations like GNAR and BMA are ready to partner on building trails that actually serve all users. The county has been slow to take us up on it.
Visitation at Boulder County parks has dropped from 2.1 million in 2020 to 1.7 million in 2025. Heil Valley Ranch alone is down 23% in two years. The county's response to a system losing users is to restrict the users it has left, specifically the majority user group at every targeted property.
The pilot is a red herring. Boulder County has 100,000+ acres of open space and zero miles of purpose-built bike-specific trail. Fix that and the conflict problem largely fixes itself. Restrict the trails we have and you'll see visitation keep falling, unsanctioned trails keep multiplying, and a community that funded this land through its taxes continue to feel unwelcome on it.
Rex Madden, Greater Nederland Area Riders (GNAR)
May 12, 2026
May 9, 2026
May 8, 2026
May 8, 2026
I'm in Utah and we generally don't have such issues but there are counties that are 10-20 years behind like in this case. Looking at you Logan.
May 7, 2026
Only limit bikers even though they perform the most trail maintenance and spend the most money. Make it make sense.
May 8, 2026
May 8, 2026
May 7, 2026
May 9, 2026
That said, we as trail users must always be courteous and give right of way - it's a simple thing to be polite, even to each other. I still see too many bikers "in their flow state" who refuse to yield because that 10 seconds is an inconvenience to their momentary enjoyment. When you do that, you are as bad as any California Crazy Horse Lady.
May 10, 2026
May 15, 2026
May 18, 2026
Is the proposed "alternating use schedule" the same, where hikers and equestrians can access the trails every single day? Or are there actually days where the trails are bike-only?
Based on what I've read, it sounds like the "alternating use" isn't actually alternating; it's just banning bikes on certain days. But I wasn't sure if you found something different in your research.
May 9, 2026