Boulder Closes Western Open Space Trails This Weekend Due To Extreme Fire Risk

All city-owned Open Space and Mountain Parks property west of Highway 93, Broadway and Highway 36 was shut down from sunset Friday, March 13 through sunrise Sunday, March 15, as Boulder officials moved to prevent wildfires and protect visitors during a National Weather Service Red Flag Warning that flagged dangerously high winds and critical fire conditions.

The closure covered every trail and trailhead in the western OSMP system, including popular destinations like Caribou Ranch, Heil Valley Ranch and the Boulder Canyon Trail. Flagstaff Road was also closed to non-residential traffic. Boulder County Parks and Open Space extended the action further, closing all parts of their open space system located west of Highway 36 on Saturday, March 14.

City Manager Nuria Rivera-Vandermyde framed the decision directly. "This is a precautionary measure to protect lives and property as we face a high-risk day," she said. "We know access to nature and open space is important to our community, and we've not made this decision lightly. We need people to stay off all closed parts of the system to prevent injury, reduce the risk of ignition and to allow rangers and law enforcement to respond to other calls for service associated with this wind event."

Boulder Fire Rescue spokesperson Jamie Barker spelled out the specific hazards driving the call. "Really in an effort for fire prevention, folks can't be on the trails and have a risk of ignition, as well as for visitor safety," Barker said. "The winds are gonna be pretty dangerous and there could be flying debris, falling trees, etc." The National Weather Service warned that any fire igniting under those conditions was likely to develop into a fast-moving blaze.

City and county officials activated the Emergency Operations Center to monitor conditions throughout Saturday. For anyone tracking the situation, boulderodm.org carried up-to-date EOC information, and emergency alerts including evacuation warnings were available through bocoalert.org. Xcel Energy also announced planned power shutoffs affecting thousands of residents across Boulder and Jefferson counties, expected to begin after 2 p.m. Saturday.

Despite the closures, the warm and mostly sunny Saturday pulled crowds to local trails anyway. Luis Morata found out about the shutdown the hard way, after he and friends had already ridden out to the Boulder Canyon Trail on bikes. "We were trying to go on the trail … and it was actually closed, we had to kind of turn around," Morata said.

Vinny Montez of the Boulder County Sheriff's Office acknowledged the enforcement reality plainly. "Here's the thing: Is there going to be enough people to truly stop people from going out on those trails? The answer to that is absolutely not," Montez said. "We're just asking people to comply with these closures, because we don't want them to be at risk."

The city's Interactive Web Map showed the full scope of closed areas for anyone who wanted to check specific trailheads before heading out.