Brief by Central Staff
Outdoors – February 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine
With the transfer of the Baca Ranch to the federal government as part of the process in making Great Sand Dunes National Park, 14,165-foot Kit Carson Peak has apparently moved from private to public lands.
Before the transfer, the peak’s ownership was uncertain, since that part of the Baca boundary had never been surveyed. The east route to the summit, from the Wet Mountain Valley, used public land. The west route, from the San Luis Valley, crossed the Baca Ranch. Since the ranch allowed hikers to use the trail to the peak, the ownership issue wasn’t a practical concern.
However, Kit Carson was not the only 14er on private property. It’s a major issue with 14,047-foot Culebra Peak, since there’s no way to climb it while staying on public land. It sits on a big private ranch (“the Taylor Ranch” or “La Sierra”) east of the town of San Luis. The ranch recently changed hands, and the new owners plan to offer several guided summer hikes, each limited to 20 climbers who each pay $100.
Private lands play a role in routes on some other 14ers. Wilson Peak (14,017 in the San Juans) has a public summit, but the customary route from Silver Pick Trailhead has been closed by a private landowner who’s doing some mineral development. Little Bear (14,037 feet and part of the Blanca massif east of Alamosa) is a hard climb on its easiest route, which is almost all on private property, and an even harder one on the route open to the public.
The Mosquito Range between Fairplay and Leadville has been mined since territorial days, and so there are mining claims that extend well above timberline. Thus most routes to its 14ers (Bross at 14,172, Democrat at 14,148, Lincoln at 14,286, and Sherman at 14,036) cross private land.
So far, according to the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative in Golden, the trails remain open to the public, but landowners are starting to get worried about liability problems if hikers depart from the trail and poke around mine workings, which can be dangerous.
CFI stresses that “It is important for hikers to recognize that it is a privilege and not a right to access private land, and hikers should be vigilant in their respect of all aspects of the land, including the animals, plants, minerals, and buildings,” and that entering mines or mine structures “is considered trespassing and the liability to the land owner may eventually result in revoking access privileges.”
