After years of public debate and environmental scrutiny, construction is finally underway on a long-disputed trail system near Rabbit Ears Pass in northwest Colorado.
The first segment of the 49-mile network — once branded as “Mad Rabbit” — is now being built with the help of community volunteers. Earlier this month, close to two dozen volunteers turned out for the official groundbreaking, according to Laraine Martin of the local advocacy group Routt County Riders.
“It felt really amazing just to finally make progress,” Martin said, noting that many attendees had followed the project’s twists and turns for nearly a decade.
Momentum picked up over the summer when the Steamboat Springs City Council approved $1.6 million toward construction. However, that funding remained uncertain after the Colorado Department of Natural Resources objected to the U.S. Forest Service’s 80-page environmental assessment. The department took issue with the Forest Service’s “adaptive management plan,” arguing it lacked sufficient collaboration with Colorado Parks and Wildlife, particularly around elk monitoring and trail construction protocols.
Local District Ranger Michael Woodbridge defended the agency’s process, telling city leaders: “We didn’t take anything out of the adaptive management plan about CPW and DNR other than clarifying their decision-making authority. … We clarified that these are Forest Service decisions. There’s still a lot of involvement in the adaptive management plan of us working with DNR and CPW throughout the life of this project.”
That “life” could stretch for another decade, Martin cautioned. The complete plan spans more than 127,000 acres and includes not just 49 miles of new trail but also the closure and rehabilitation of 36 miles of existing user-created routes. Work is expected to unfold across three phases.
“I hate to put a number on it, but it might be another 10 years before we see the end of phase three,” she said.
As the physical work advances, project supporters are also working to rebrand its image. The name “Mad Rabbit” — once tied to a broader concept that would have linked Rabbit Ears Pass to nearby Mad Creek — is being phased out.
“We’re just calling them the Rabbit Ears Pass trails,” Martin said, calling the old name a “misnomer” now that the original 80-mile connection plan is no longer part of the vision.
“There’s also kind of a PR component to it now that we’re building trails,” she added. “We want to distance ourselves from the past negativity and step forward into the future.”
Construction is expected to continue through volunteer days and phased federal coordination as advocates push to transform the once-controversial concept into a lasting recreation resource for Steamboat Springs and the greater Yampa Valley.
Originally reported by Seth Boster in The Denver Gazette.
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