Blue Lakes- San Juans Usage Comments

[Boggy B]

Looks like headlines are permitting (May 1-Sept 30) for day hiking (40 permits per day, group size up to 10) and overnight camping (4 sites) at Blue Lakes. No permits for Sneffels standard route. Removal of some campsites up Yankee Boy (unclear where these are). WAG bags required if no restroom provided for all zones. Closure of various social trails and possible established trail improvements.

Instagram can keep Blue Lakes. But the proposal impacts access both to areas and at times which are completely devoid of visitors. It's going to be fun contending for permits (just to climb in the deserted western part of the proposed Wilderness Zone) with all the Blue Lakes tourists displaced into shoulder season because they couldn't get their desired summer dates. I hope the reservation system includes a disclaimer about typical seasonal conditions--there are already enough people getting stuck on the road or bailing on their hike who expected to find summer conditions prior to June.

[Jorts]

Too many humans.

[supranihilest]

Looks like headlines are permitting (May 1-Sept 30) for day hiking (40 permits per day, group size up to 10) and overnight camping (4 sites) at Blue Lakes. No permits for Sneffels standard route. Removal of some campsites up Yankee Boy (unclear where these are). WAG bags required if no restroom provided for all zones. Closure of various social trails and possible established trail improvements.

Instagram can keep Blue Lakes. But the proposal impacts access both to areas and at times which are completely devoid of visitors. It's going to be fun contending for permits (just to climb in the deserted western part of the proposed Wilderness Zone) with all the Blue Lakes tourists displaced into shoulder season because they couldn't get their desired summer dates. I hope the reservation system includes a disclaimer about typical seasonal conditions--there are already enough people getting stuck on the road or bailing on their hike who expected to find summer conditions prior to June.

This is my concern, and why I still haven't done the 13ers around Maroon Lake - the mad rush of people claiming all the permits to go to a specific area I won't be going to means I can't (legally) go to the specific area I want to that the crowds aren't going to, at least via the easy route. Coming over Buckskin or East Maroon passes is far less appealing. As for the Blue Lakes zone I was considering making somewhat regular, seasonally-dependent climbs of S 4, S 6, and Wolcott since they're in my backyard now but this will complicate things to a degree I won't want to mess with to go to an area that maybe a handful of people go to every year. So glad I got those done already, I'll be permitted out of my own local recreation areas. There really needs to be permits for climbers/different use cases, I'm not the one shitting on trails and letting a dog I don't own run amok unleashed.

[tmud]

calm down, if you haven't camped at blue lakes yet, well you missed your chance, but these permits won't impact climbers, there is no way to staff a ranger out there, especially in May, and definitely not at 3-6am when most of us are heading out from the TH. The wag bag idea is terrible, they won't be used and anyone that does use them will leave them around the lake, just like up on mt whitney. They should just put a pit toilet by the lake and designate some camping spots with permits.

[XterraRob]

We need to start lobbying to make it illegal to post pictures on social media of certain landscape features like the Maroon Bells or Blue Lakes.

This would substantially cut down the traffic in these areas. It might also shrink the 14er community by up to 95%.

[Scott P]

We need to start lobbying to make it illegal to post pictures on social media of certain landscape features like the Maroon Bells or Blue Lakes

That would be unconstitutional.

[two lunches]

We need to start lobbying to make it illegal to post pictures on social media of certain landscape features like the Maroon Bells or Blue Lakes.

This would substantially cut down the traffic in these areas. It might also shrink the 14er community by up to 95%.

honestly it's fine to post pictures, but i would love to see the removal of locations for places like Ice Lake Basin, Conundrum Hot Springs, and Blue Lakes that have been overrun by tourists (and fecal matter)

i have no problem tagging obscure 13ers no one cares about, 14ers everyone knows about, or heavily used (but well maintained) places like the Colorado Trail, but as a general rule of thumb, i stick to "Colorado" or "White River National Forest" or "San Juan Mountains, Colorado" so that people can't just plop it in Google Maps and wreck havoc.

and for the love of everything good in the world can everyone stop leaving their toilet paper in the woods!!?? burn it, bury it, or pack it out

[XterraRob]

That would be unconstitutional.

honestly it's fine to post pictures, but i would love to see the removal of locations for places like Ice Lake Basin, Conundrum Hot Springs, and Blue Lakes that have been overrun by tourists (and fecal matter)

i have no problem tagging obscure 13ers no one cares about, 14ers everyone knows about, or heavily used (but well maintained) places like the Colorado Trail, but as a general rule of thumb, i stick to "Colorado" or "White River National Forest" or "San Juan Mountains, Colorado" so that people can't just plop it in Google Maps and wreck havoc.

and for the love of everything good in the world can everyone stop leaving their toilet paper in the woods!!?? burn it, bury it, or pack it out

I also support (aggressively) re-introducing Grizzly Bears into Colorado Wilderness areas as a tourist control measure.

One day, in the not-to-distant future, Colorado will call upon me to help manage these issues after they've grown out of control. And I will be here to answer that call.

[astranko]

We need to start lobbying to make it illegal to post pictures on social media of certain landscape features like the Maroon Bells or Blue Lakes.

This would substantially cut down the traffic in these areas. It might also shrink the 14er community by up to 95%.

Yeah no one was hiking and it wasn't crowded anywhere before social media.

Powerful "old man yells at cloud" energy.



The regulations are inevitable. I just wish they would limit 4x4 access to lower. People rightly complain about crowds and poop, but no one has an issue with the $50k hunks of steel that we bring into those areas. What's more polluting and damaging to the environment? Unburied waste or a 2023 Rubicon - Tiny Peen Edition?

[XterraRob]

Yeah no one was hiking and it wasn't crowded anywhere before social media.

Powerful "old man yells at cloud" energy.

The regulations are inevitable. I just wish they would limit 4x4 access to lower. People rightly complain about crowds and poop, but no one has an issue with the $50k hunks of steel that we bring into those areas. What's more polluting and damaging to the environment? Unburied waste or a 2023 Rubicon - Tiny Peen Edition?

Hey now, I'm just a friendly mountain enthusiast trying to offer some constructive solutions to this problem.

[Boggy B]

calm down, if you haven't camped at blue lakes yet, well you missed your chance, but these permits won't impact climbers, there is no way to staff a ranger out there, especially in May, and definitely not at 3-6am when most of us are heading out from the TH.

Sure--though the plan calls for increased ranger patrols on CR7, at the trailhead and at Blue Lakes, the reality of "as funding/staffing allows" is that chances of encountering an LEO would be slim, certainly in the early AM, less slim on the hike out. Regardless, the permit system would definitely impact climbers who don't think simply ignoring regulations is a good plan A.

[two lunches]

the plan calls for increased ranger patrols on CR7, at the trailhead and at Blue Lakes, the reality of "as funding/staffing allows" is that chances of encountering an LEO would be slim, certainly in the early AM, less slim on the hike out.

if i can also make a humble request for ranger-enforced drone patrol in wilderness areas, it would save me a few shotgun shells