Find Your Fourteener - Launching a Path Forward on Colorado's Iconic Peaks

>>>Click here for 2018 Volunteer Opportunities

With 54 peaks in Colorado above 14,000 feet, 48 of which span across six of the state’s National Forests, the opportunities to feel like you’re touching the sky are almost endless.

Colorado’s 14,000-foot peaks, known as “Fourteeners,” are legendary among hiking aficionados. Every season people make 311,000 trips up one or more Fourteeners, making these some of the most popular hikes in the country. However, surging visitation is threatening fragile alpine biodiversity and critical water sources atop these peaks. Local trail groups are unable to keep pace with the growing impacts as more and more people tick “hiking a Fourteener” off of their bucket list. The problem is particularly acute on the 48 Fourteeners that lie on Colorado’s National Forests.

The tundra on Fourteeners – the largest tundra ecosystem in the lower 48 – is unique Colorado habitat. Home to rare plants and wildlife like the pika, marmot, rosy finch and ptarmigan, the tundra also delivers Colorado’s headwaters.

The NFF is proud to convene outdoor stewardship groups in Colorado to implement this important campaign.

Collaboration is necessary to improve the future for Fourteeners. To engage local groups and expand the work each year, the National Forest Foundation (NFF) has launched Find Your Fourteener. This ambitious statewide campaign is bringing together Colorado stewardship organizations to protect the tundra by creating sustainable routes in areas most at risk from increasing use.

Improving trails on Colorado’s Fourteeners is not a new idea; groups including the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative (CFI), the Rocky Mountain Field Institute, Colorado-based youth corps, and many other conservation and volunteer organizations have been involved with these trails for decades. These groups are now coming together, along with the National Forest Foundation, to more strategically address the needs of Fourteeners state-wide.

A trail crew leader from the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative on Mount Elbert.

In 2015, CFI released a “Colorado Fourteeners Report Card” that rated Fourteener trail and ecosystem conditions, determining that more than $24 million in baseline investments are needed to create sustainable routes to the summits of all of Colorado’s Fourteeners. NFF will work with partners to tackle many of these projects in a tiered and strategic effort, and that will prioritize “front country,” “mid country,” and “back country” peaks.

The NFF’s Find Your Fourteener campaign is a long-term effort to ensure that these enduring peaks remain healthy, accessible and inviting for decades to come. As Gifford Pinchot, the first Chief of the U.S. Forest Service said, “The vast possibilities of our great future will become realities only if we make ourselves responsible for that future.” That future is now and the responsibility is ours.

Species such as mountain goats coexist with hikers on trails in fragile, high alpine ecosystems like this route up Quandary Peak.

2018 PROJECTS & VOLUNTEER EVENTS

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Mount Elbert (with the Leadville District of the Pike & San Isabel National Forests, Colorado Fourteeners Initiative, Rocky Mountain Youth Corps, Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado, Wildland Restoration Volunteers, Colorado Mountain Club, Get Outdoors Leadville, Colorado Correctional Industries)

2018 Mount Elbert Volunteer Event Dates

June 23-24: Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado and Colorado Fourteeners Initiative
- Click here to sign up with Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado

July 14-15: Multi-organization collaborative event with Wildland Restoration Volunteers, Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado, Colorado Fourteeners Initiative, Colorado Mountain Club, National Forest Foundation
- Click here to sign up with Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado
- Click here to sign up with Wildland Restoration Volunteers
- Sign up with Colorado Mountain Club

July 21-22: Family/multi-generational volunteer event with Get Outdoor Leadville, Colorado Fourteeners Initiative, National Forest Foundation

August 11-12: Wildland Restoration Volunteers and Colorado Fourteeners Initiative
- Click here to sign up with Wildland Restoration Volunteers

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Quandary Peak (with the Dillon District of the White River National Forest, Colorado Fourteeners Initiative, Friends of the Dillon Ranger District, Rocky Mountain Youth Corps, Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado)

2018 Quandary Peak Volunteer Event Dates

June 16: Friends of the Dillon Ranger District and Colorado Fourteeners Initiative
- Click here to sign up with Friends of the Dillon Range District
July 21^:Fiends of the Dillon Ranger District and Colorado Fourteeners Initiative
- Click here to sign up with Friends of the Dillon Ranger District

August 11: Friends of the Dillon Ranger District and Colorado Fourteeners Initiative
- Click here to sign up with Friends of the Dillon Ranger District

September 8-9: Multi-organization collaborative event with Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado, Friends of the Dillon Ranger District, Colorado Fourteeners Initiative, National Forest Foundation

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Pikes Peak (with the Pikes Peak District of the Pike & San Isabel National Forests, Rocky Mountain Field Institute, Colorado Mountain Club, Mile High Youth Corps, Friends of the Peak)

2018 Pikes Peak Volunteer Event Dates

September 15-16: Multi-organization collaborative volunteer event with Rocky Mountain Field Institute, Colorado Mountain Club (both the local Colorado Springs chapter and statewide stewardship group), Friends of the Peak, National Forest Foundation
- Click here to sign up through the Rocky Mountain Field Institute

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Kit Carson Peak & Challenger Point (with the Rio Grande National Forest, Rocky Mountain Field Institute, Southwest Conservation Corps)

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Alpine Stewards Training (with Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado, U.S. Forest Service, Colorado Fourteeners Initiative, Wildland Restoration Volunteers, Rocky Mountain Field Institute, Colorado Mountain Club, Southwest Conservation Corps)