“Lovely, winding, soothing and peaceful” are how residents describe Durango’s Animas River Trail, said Sweetie Marbury, longtime resident and former city councilor.
Often called the “crown jewel” of Durango by residents and city officials past and present, the Animas River Trail has been decades in the making.
About 50 years into development, the Animas River Trail remains unfinished as the city works to complete a long-planned connection to Three Springs. When, exactly, that connection will be made, remains uncertain.
The trail extends from Oxbow Park and Preserve in north Durango to the Dallabetta Park trailhead near River Road and La Posta Road (County Road 213).
It’s 50 years and approximately $35 million in the making – about $4 million, or 18% of which was grant-funded – according to the Parks and Recreation Department.
“It’s truly one of Durango’s most defining assets,” Councilor Jessika Loyer said. “It connects neighborhoods, nature, the community in a way I think very few towns do.”
She said the Animas River Trail is not just a trail – it’s part of the city's infrastructure, a recreation outlet, an economic driver and a piece of the community’s identity all rolled into one.
Negotiations with property owners are underway to clear the path to Three Springs, according to the city.
That connection, which is formally known as the SMART 160 Trail, would stretch the Animas River Trail’s approximately 9-mile length from Oxbow Park and Preserve to Three Springs, adding another 3 miles to the trail. The trail currently ends near the Sale Barn trailhead near Home Depot.
The planned connection to Three Springs is about halfway constructed, and another half remains to be developed
“The Animas River Trail always was the No. 1 recreational asset that the community members used,” said Cathy Metz, former Parks and Recreation director of 25 years.
She said the first segment of the trail was created in the 1970s, and was developed in patchy segments in an opportunistic fashion – when other public works projects justified building parts of the trail.
Metz said things changed in 1999 when voters approved a sales tax that would serve as a dedicated funding source for Parks and Recreation Department projects, including the Animas River Trail.
The new funding source allowed the city to pursue grants and purchase properties for easements, speeding up development of the trail, she said.
“Prior to that, it was very difficult to build segments of the trail because it was expensive. There’s always, always competing demands for resources in the city, because there’s so many needs in the community,” she said. “We had a very difficult time doing construction prior to that dedicated sales tax in ’99, and it would have taken much longer had we not had the voter approval.”
Metz served as Parks and Recreation director from January 1996 through July 2021. Other parks and recreation directors came and went.
Scott McClain, current director, said one of the trail’s standout features is its utility. It provides a great recreational opportunity, he said, but more and more people are using it for their daily commutes.
“Being able to ride for … the length of the trail along the edge of the river is extraordinary,” he said. “The river trail does a great job of linking together all the things that we have done as a community.”
The river trail connects to downtown, various trailheads and other parks and recreation projects such as Oxbow Park and Preserve in north Durango.
“Good morning,” “I’m on your left” and “Can I say ‘hi’ to your dog?” are the sorts of neighborly things a trail user will hear, McClain said.
There are roughly 25 public art installations, eight pedestrian bridges and three junctions where users can take an underpass or cross the street to continue along the trail.
Marbury, who served on City Council from 2011 to 2019, said the trail itself is a “work of art.” She recalled a walk she and other councilors took along the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad tracks near Memorial Park to see for themselves how the trail might impact property owners in the area.
Metz and McClain separately said negotiations with property owners have always been the biggest challenges with development of the trail.
That rings true to this day.
The Durango Herald reported in July 2024 the city was in negotiations with property owner John Gilleland to advance the SMART 160 trail connection to Three Springs.
Negotiations are ongoing, according to the city.
“There were pieces that we had to wait until a private property owner was in place, or that property ownership changed, until we could get an easement to connect A and B,” McClain said. “The section down there between Harley-Davidson and the (Durango) Mall was one of those sections where we had trails filled out through there and north of there, but had a gap that we couldn’t connect for a number of years.”
He said the northern section of the Animas River Trail was challenging to build because the Animas City area was already developed. While people were supportive of the trail, they were also concerned about how the trail might affect their privacy. People love the idea of a new trail, but not necessarily one that runs through their backyard.
“Trying to find that balance – building a trail in an area that’s already developed – has been a challenge, for sure,” he said.
Loyer, who was elected in April 2021 and is the longest-serving councilor out of current city councilors, said the 32nd Street pedestrian bridge and underpass on the Animas River Trail was a controversial project, and one of the biggest developments of the trail during her time in office.
The project cost about $2.7 million and used a Great Outdoors Colorado grant of $1.4 million, the Herald reported in September 2022 upon the project’s completion.
The underpass, which connects to Memorial Park, was built to allow trail users to cross 32nd Street without encountering traffic. She said the underpass was “major for safety and accessibility” – trail users don’t have to cross a road once between Oxbow Park in north Durango and where the trail ends near Home Depot.
Loyer said negotiations with property owners are tough, and as a business owner, she gets it – bureaucracy is slow and “maddening sometimes,” but it exists for a reason.
“It’s private landowners, right? You can’t force them to do something. We want to work together with the community to make it the best we possibly can,” she said. “… We’re going to have a beautiful trail that is going to go from Oxbow Park to Three Springs someday, and we’re all going to be so glad when it finally goes through. And yeah, it’s frustrating – for sure – but at the same time, it’s just part of the process.”
cburney@durangoherald.com
