San Juan National Forest to start Hermosa Creek culvert project July 20

San Juan National Forest will start work July 20 on the Mainstem Hermosa Creek Culvert Installation Project, and the first change visitors will feel is a roadside closure near National Forest System Road 578. A full road closure follows from Sept. 8 through Oct. 13, 2026, forcing anyone planning a summer trip up Hermosa Park Road to build in extra time or reroute entirely.

The project-area closure order runs through June 30, 2027, and delays of up to 30 minutes are possible outside the full closure window. Access to the Hermosa Creek Trail will remain open from Highway 550, but the closure will affect a stretch of one of the most heavily used recreation corridors near Durango, especially for mountain bikers, campers and anglers who normally stage from the 578 corridor. The project also overlaps Game Management Unit 74 and archery and muzzleloader big-game seasons, so hunters will need to plan around the road work as well.

At the creek crossing itself, the Forest Service is replacing the long-standing low-water ford with an aquatic-organism-passage structure designed to let vehicles cross safely while restoring habitat connectivity for native trout. The project will reconstruct about 900 feet of heavily impacted streambed, reduce sedimentation and improve water quality, while also handling flood flows more effectively than the old crossing. The new structure is similar to the Aquatic Organism Passage work completed at Sig Creek and Relay Creek in 2024.

The Hermosa Creek cutthroat trout effort is a 30-year restoration project across 23 miles of stream habitat. The long-term goal is to reconnect two isolated headwater populations into a self-sustaining meta-population of native Colorado River cutthroat trout, and the work was identified in the Hermosa Creek Special Management Area Plan signed in 2018.