Pestilence and fire plague RMNP in 2020

From RMNP Press Releases; by Barb Boyer Buck, Managing Editor

A global pandemic and record-setting wildfires conspired to make 2020 a difficult year in Rocky Mountain National Park.

As of the end of October, 2020, recreational visitation was about 32 percent below 2019 numbers. This was due in no small part to a new timed-entry reservation system implemented to mitigate for COVID19, after a more than two-month closure of the Park to all visitors.

This initial closure occurred on March 20 and was the result of a plea to the nation's Secretary of the Interior, by the former mayor of Estes Park, Todd Jirsa.

"A continued influx of visitors at this critical time presents a grave public health concern to Estes Park and our surrounding communities," stated Jirsa in his letter. "We have an older, high-risk population with many retirees and limited critical resources." Park officials agreed that nearly 80 percent of RMNP's 4.67 million visitors in 2019 entered via Estes Park, a small community with only 23 hospital beds at the local medical center.

Visitors form a socially-distant line for the shuttle at Glacier Gorge in June, just after the Park reopened. Ridership on the shuttles was reduced per trip, to help mitigate for COVID19.

Photo by Dave Rusk

A little more than two months two months later, Rocky reopened and the timed-entry reservation system was implemented on June 4.

Reservations were required to enter RMNP between 6 a.m. and 5 p.m., designed to limit vehicles to numbers not recorded for more than 20 years. Daily visitation before and after the reservation period was not regulated. The timed entry system was in place until October 13, 2020.

The Thompson Zone of the East Troublesome Fire burns in Beaver Meadows on Oct. 22

RMNP photo

Not even 10 days later, Rocky was completely closed again when the two biggest wildfires in Colorado history breached the Park's boundaries. The East Troublesome Fire began in Grand County on October 14 and quickly moved into the west side of RMNP. On Oct. 21, the fire ran 18 miles east and spotted over the Continental Divide, breaching 1.5 miles of tundra.

Moraine Park fire damage on Nov. 2

Photo by Dave Rusk

Then, it burned into two distinct areas on the east side of the Park, extending down to Moraine Park and Upper Beaver Meadows.

RMNP was closed just prior to the evacuation of the entire town of Estes Park and the surrounding communities, October 22-24. The closure was in place until Nov. 6 when some of the east side of the park was reopened. Additional sections of Rocky were reopened as soon as they could be safely done so.

Very dry and windy conditions fueled these two fires (and several others in Northern Colorado) which burned 22,668 acres within the Park's boundaries. That's nine percent of the Park's land damaged or destroyed by fire, including several historic structures such as the Fern Lake Lodge, built in 1925.

The Grand Lake Entrance Staon Office was completely destroyed by the East Troublesome Fire on Oct. 21

RMNP photo

A Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) team, was deployed to Rocky in November to assess post-fire impacts from both fires. The team consisted of specialists in hydrology, soil science, archeology, wildlife biology, botany, roads, and trails.

The BAER team recommended some emergency stabilization treatments or other actions in their assessment report.

“This is one step toward recovery,” said RMNP.

Here at Rocky Mountain Day Hikes, we archive all of Rocky Mountain National Park’s press releases. This is to provide a historical record of the Park's events in an easy-to-access way. We began this practice just prior to RMNP's announcement of its first closure, in late March.

We offer this as a convenient resource for archive research of public information to everyone free of charge, but ask that you provide the proper attributions and/or share these pieces via the social media links provided.

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