Durango Mesa Park, Durango’s soon-to-be “world-class,” 1,850-acre bike park and event space atop Ewing Mesa east of Colorado Highway 3, is making steady progress, said Moira Compton, executive director of the Durango Mesa Park Foundation.
“We watch that calendar closely,” she said.
There is still a long way to go before the park’s official opening in 2027. With a new road, trails and infrastructure completed last year and more trails and amenities planned for completion this year, Ewing Mesa is undergoing a rapid transformation.
Unprecedented October rains delayed construction and frayed nerves, but a historically mild winter allowed builders to maintain their pace, Compton said. Although some trails have already been completed, much remains to be done this year and next, including dog parks, disc golf and additional paths.
Trails in the park’s upper bike park zone and hiking-only trails were finished last year in addition to a water line and an emergency egress road, with more important infrastructure work to be completed this year.
A 3,525-linear-foot waterline was completed last year in addition to a renewed intersection of Highway 3 and Ewing Mesa Road, and the repaving of Ewing Mesa Road that totaled $8,915,000, Compton said.
Another 9,000-linear-foot waterline is planned for completion this year.
Durango Mesa Park is slated to officially open in 2027, although some amenities are already accessible. Hiking-only trails and an upper bike park zone were completed last year.
Flow and downhill trails are currently closed for seasonal wildlife closures but will be open soon, Compton said. The Mesa Connector, Knob Connector, Manilla Vanilla and a bike park connector trail are open now.
Builders will be occupied this year with infrastructure and a number of varying bike tracks and courses. Compton said the 2026 construction schedule includes:
Compton said she expects the park will be open to public vehicular access by the spring or summer 2027. With the park opening inching closer, she said she feels like she is marking down the days with tallies on the wall.
“We’re one day closer, we’ve got so much to do,” she said.
Lower and middle bike park areas are planned to be finished in 2027, she said. A disc golf course is planned to open next year, and the Durango Mesa Park Foundation is exploring ideas for a practice archery range as well.
The foundation started a fundraiser last year to raise money for equestrian trails on the mesa where La Plata County previously planned to build new fairgrounds. Additionally, Compton said, a campground will be built over 2027 and 2028.
If all of that sounds like a wide, diverse range of amenities, that’s because that was the intention for Durango Mesa Park all along, Compton said.
“If you go back to the original vision of creating a space for everybody in the community to either enjoy outdoor recreation, passive recreation, just having a picnic with your family … or being able to enjoy a cultural event or music event, that’s really the overall vision and goal of the whole project,” she said.
The city of Durango and the Durango Mesa Park Foundation are splitting costs evenly, Compton said, with a 2026 budget of $6.5 million.
Compton said Durango Mesa Park’s master plan includes a BMX facility and bike parking, running trails, concert and event space, and a mountain sports complex with 11 soccer fields.
Some pieces of the plan, such as the BMX facility, have high price tags attached, and it will be years – an unknown amount of time – before they will be completed. But storage and community space will be needed in the meantime, she said, and the foundation has plans to accommodate frequent users of the park in the interim.
Compton said Durango Devo, Durango Trails, Adaptive Sports and the Fort Lewis College Cycling Team, for example, need storage sooner rather than later, and the foundation is planning on building a bike barn for just that.
She said the bike barn will consist of multiple storage containers to be used for storage and operational space.
“It’s a really great in-between process to engage the community, support the stakeholder organizations,” she said. “I’m calling certain things layers of icing to the cake, and that’s a layer of icing.”
Compton said the “bike barn” should be in place for the park’s opening in 2027.
She said compliments on the completed trails and the revitalized Ewing Mesa Road “are just endless,” and she continues to hear from residents who are excited for the completed park.
Marc Katz purchased the 1,850-acre property on the mesa for $14 million in 2015 and conveyed it to the Durango Mesa Park Foundation in 2019. The foundation plans to donate that land to the city in phases, with the first conveyance of 392 acres to the city in April 2025.
Compton said Durango Mesa Park Foundation has worked on planning and community engagement for 11 years and it’s “really coming together.”
“A lot of people in the community, they’re really excited for how that area is going to be used and how many public spaces will be created in the park,” she said.
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