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Snowmass Trail Talk: It Takes A Village

Town of Snowmass Parks, Recreation and Trails Department
Starr Jamison
An image of the community garden in Cathy Robinson Park taken from the Town of Snowmass Village Parks, Recreation and Trails Department website.
Courtesy photo/Town of Snowmass

The Town of Snowmass Village Parks, Recreation and Trails Department couldn’t do it without YOU!

We had a very productive summer and are growing every year. This means more park amenities and trails, which leads to more maintenance and sometimes more weeds.

One example of the strong community volunteer work that’s gone into our parks and trails over the summer is with the Hawk Ridge Trail. The new trail project proved how much more time and energy it takes to hand-build a trail versus machine-build it. Work on this .6-mile trail has been challenging with steep terrain and lack of precipitation, but we are close to completion because of help from a variety of local organizations, including:



Roaring Fork Mountain Bike Association for four volunteer projects and numerous other volunteer workdays with staff

Roaring Fork Outdoor Volunteers for two successful volunteer workdays




Aspen Cycling Club for bringing out 40 volunteers to work on a Wednesday evening project

Aspen Skiing Co. for sending eight volunteers for four workdays

Art Burrows for volunteering numerous days as needed, with staff and groups

John Campbell for his two days working with our staff

Parks and trails staff also has seen significant reduction of weeds in town Open Space areas and on trails due to our volunteer programs manually removing noxious weeds. We would love to see more participation in our Bag of Weeds Program next year, but appreciate all of the hard work from a handful of locals, including Janie Low, Norma Wilhelm and Marilyn Van Orden.

On top of success with trail maintenance and care, the community garden at Cathy Robinson Park also was a huge success this year. We had all 29 boxes reserved and filled with healthy vegetables, flowers and herbs. Parks and trails staff would like to thank Guion Stewart-Moore for volunteering her time as the community garden coordinator.

The Parks, Open Space, Trails and Recreation Board also deserves recognition for its hard work this past summer and fall. The board members presented to Town Council and attended monthly board meetings, contributing time and passion toward our current and potential programs, trails and facilities. Thank you Jeff Kremer, Brett Beavers, Darryl Grob, Matt Donnelly, Michael Tippet, Lee Ann Vold, Larry Dempsy, Jim Snyder and Lisa Waldman for being the voices for our community.

Lastly, we’d also like to thank the Roaring Fork Fire Rescue Authority for spending two days clearing dead and hazardous trees from sections of our paved trails. This not only creates defensible space and safety for trail users but also is a huge help to our department.

Again, as our parks and trails department continues to grow, your help and support becomes even more important! If you would like to volunteer with the Town of Snowmass Village Parks and Trails Department, please call the parks and trails manager at 970-922-2249.

The Snowmass Sun and the town of Snowmass Parks, Recreation and Trails Department have partnered to launch “Trail Talk,” a series that will explore trail issues, etiquette and rules for shared trail use in the village.

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