Revolutionizing · Modernizing · Simplifying
Revolutionizing · Modernizing · Simplifying
That chimney-shaped rock looming over Trinidad has been there the whole time. For generations you could not touch it. It sat locked up in private hands, a 30-square-mile ranch you drove past on I-25 and never got closer to.
That changed in 2020. And what is happening down there right now is worth your attention.
On Saturday, Aug. 15, 2026, at 9 a.m., Fishers Peak State Park throws a public celebration to open 9 more miles of trail off that promontory. Nine miles. That pushes the young park's system past 20 miles total, which for a place that basically did not exist five years ago is a serious jump.
Joe Kozlowicz has been tracking Fishers Peak since day one, back in 2020 when Trinidad's scenic backdrop finally opened up after all those years of private ownership. He did not just watch from Denver either. He moved down, opened a bike shop in town, and started advocating with the Trinidad Trails Alliance. So when he talks about these new trails, he is talking about ground he helped push for.
Here is the part that matters to anyone deciding whether the drive south is worth it. The new upper loop runs through a ponderosa pine forest, then breaks open for sweeping views of the valley on the backside of the peak. Kozlowicz calls it a secluded backcountry experience, and coming from a guy who has been on every foot of this thing, that means something.
The new lower loop cuts through an old-growth oak forest. There is a spur added just for hikers and horseback riders. And for the mountain bikers, the additions finally give you a nicer climbing trail, which if you have ever grunted your way up bad trail design, you understand is a big deal.
So how did this happen at all. Buckle up, because the backstory is better than you would guess.
The land used to be the Crazy French Ranch. It was owned by Marc Jung, a French grocery tycoon, and his wife Evelyne. Thirty square miles of Colorado backcountry sitting behind one family's gate. On Feb. 28, 2019, the state closed on the property for about
And that money did not just come out of a general fund. It came from recreation dollars through Great Outdoors Colorado, plus CPW Habitat Stamp funds, and more than
It got its official name, Fishers Peak State Park, on July 16, 2020, and opened to the public that October. It came in as Colorado's second-largest state park at 19,200 acres. The 42nd state park in the system. Second-largest right out of the gate, which tells you the scale of what we are talking about.
The centerpiece is the 8-mile summit trail up to the 9,633-foot top. That opened in November 2023, and Gov. Jared Polis himself hiked to the summit for the grand opening.
Now here is a detail people miss. The final mile of that summit trail closes every single spring. Not for maintenance. For peregrine falcons. There is a nesting pair up there, and the park shuts the top down to protect them while they raise their young. This year it reopened on Aug. 1, 2026, and that marks the fifth consecutive year the pair has successfully raised chicks. Five years running. So when you make the summit, you are sharing the peak with a falcon family that has been up there longer than most of the trail.
The summit trail is open daily now, 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. The park sits right near the New Mexico border at Santa Fe Trail, Trinidad, CO 81082.
Here is the real story on this. A trail system does not just sit there looking pretty. It moves people. Kozlowicz did not open a bike shop in Trinidad on a whim. He read where this was going.
Most people still think of Trinidad as the town you blow past on the way to Santa Fe. It has been an accident on the way somewhere else. But a state park pushing past 20 miles of trail, with a real summit hike and genuine backcountry loops, gives riders and hikers an actual reason to point the car south and stay a night. That is lodging. That is the bike shop. That is breakfast in town before you head up.
And from a real estate angle, this is the kind of thing that quietly reshapes a town. Trinidad has some of the more affordable historic housing on the Front Range corridor, and a growing outdoor draw right in the backyard tends to find its way into what people are willing to pay to live there. Worth watching if you ask me.
So if you have not made the trip, Aug. 15 is your excuse. Ponderosa, old-growth oak, valley views off the backside, and a nesting pair of falcons keeping watch over the whole thing. Nine new miles, and a town that is figuring out what it has.