{"id":21310,"date":"2025-07-24T00:36:27","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T06:36:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/steps-taken-on-paths-to-mesa-verde-trail-project-but-costs-increase\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:05:44","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:05:44","slug":"steps-taken-on-paths-to-mesa-verde-trail-project-but-costs-increase","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/steps-taken-on-paths-to-mesa-verde-trail-project-but-costs-increase\/","title":{"rendered":"Steps taken on Paths to Mesa Verde Trail project, but costs increase"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Conceptual
Conceptual overview of the Paths to Mesa Verde Trail project, updated as of July 2025. (Courtesy of James Dietrich)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

A long-awaited hiking and biking trail to be built through Cortez and Mancos leading into Mesa Verde National Park has some new progress, but a longer road is further ahead, pending financial support.<\/p>\n

Natural Resources Planning and Public Lands Coordinator James Dietrich presented updates on the trail\u2019s development to the Montezuma County Board of County Commissioners during Monday\u2019s regular meeting, outlining more funds needed to bring the costly trail to its completion. In an answer to questions from The Journal, <\/em>Dietrich said that projected costs have increased because of unexpected economic factors.<\/p>\n

Dietrich\u2019s main focus on Monday was to ask commissioners for their approval of a grant proposal numbered at about $1.7 million submitted to Great Outdoors Colorado, a funding source for recreation and wilderness projects.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a nutshell, what this will do is back fill the funding gap that we have now for the Paths to Mesa Verde on the Mancos side,\u201d Dietrich told the commissioners.<\/p>\n

But some adjustments to the grant might dial the request back by about $80,000, Dietrich said. Even so, the application is not due until September, he said.<\/p>\n

That money is still just a small fragment of the funds needed to complete the trail, with estimates for the trail\u2019s cost multiplied by nearly 2\u00bd since initial numbers were proposed in 2019, according to Dietrich.<\/p>\n

Specifically, $5.7 million was the first estimate made, Dietrich told The Journal. <\/em>The new estimate puts the trail\u2019s cost at $14.2 million post-COVID-19 inflation, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cImpacts from inflation and tariffs are unknown and could drastically change any funding projections like it did the last time,\u201d Dietrich wrote in an email to The Journal.<\/em><\/p>\n

Years in the making<\/div>\n

The ambitious trail is a long time coming.<\/p>\n

The concept for the trail is about 20 years old, Dietrich told the board during a January 2024 meeting. Initial plans for the trail were developed almost a decade ago in September 2016<\/a>, even reaching a priority list set by then-Gov. John Hickenlooper later that year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Plans reached a more mature stage by 2020<\/a>. As the years have gone on, grants have been gradually awarded.<\/p>\n

So far, approximately $2 million has been spent on the trail\u2019s design and planning, minus staffing costs, Dietrich said.<\/p>\n

That money spent has come from federal, state and local funding streams, he said, with over $180,000 consisting of local matching contributions.<\/p>\n

A larger pool of money is still being sought after to actually build the trail, which has a completion date of 2028, according to the grant application presented to the board on Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying to leverage $10.8 million from central federal lands on this,\u201d he said, referring to a Colorado division of the Federal Highway Administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo this takes us all the way to Mesa Verde, then?\u201d Commissioner Jim Candelaria asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, that\u2019s correct,\u201d Dietrich responded. \u201cIt would go Mancos to Mesa Verde. It would represent 50% of this whole project.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"People
People examine a map of the study area outlining the Paths To Mesa Verde trail during a time when the project was originally considered in 2019. (Jim Mimiaga\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Other segments are at different stages, Dietrich said.<\/p>\n

The design of Segment B of the trail on the Cortez side has reached 95% completion, with the remaining 5% left open for environmental clearances, he said.<\/p>\n

But that project will be put on hold until further funding becomes available, said Dietrich.<\/p>\n

The design of Segment A on the Cortez side is about 30% finished, but has hit some delays because of the need to address stream crossings, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a fair amount of hydrology we\u2019ve got to work through on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition, there\u2019s also more to address in the plans with regards to right-of-way road matters, he said. Some tracts of the segment cross through private land and the city of Cortez.<\/p>\n

Dietrich estimates that all planning on that last segment should be done by June 2026.<\/p>\n

The length of the trail too \u2013 17 miles \u2013 may change depending on the finalized plans, he said.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday morning, the commissioners voted unanimously to approve the grant application for the ongoing trail project.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

planning and design almost done, trail was initially estimated to cost $5.7 million but now approaches $14.7 million<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21311,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-21310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21310"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21310\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77255,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21310\/revisions\/77255"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21310"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=21310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}