PITKIN COUNTY, Colo. — If visiting the Maroon Bell is on your bucket list, you better take advantage of the price tag now as fees will more than double in some instances starting next year.
That’s because the Pitkin Board of County Commissioners on Wednesday approved a special use permit to take over management of the Maroon Bells Scenic Area from the U.S. Forest Service in 2027.
Officials from the USFS said they’ve been working with the county to “develop an expanded partnership that will ensure the Maroon Bells continues to provide a high-quality visitor experience while maintaining affordable access and implementing effective long-term management strategies.”
USFS officials said that over the last decade, funding available to manage the Maroon Bells Scenic Area has “not kept pace with the rising costs of sustainably operating and maintaining the area.”
“At the same time, increasing fees through the federal Recreation Enhancement Act process is difficult and can take years to realize additional revenue,” USFS officials said.
The special use permit would allow Pitkin County to run everything from day-to-day operations like staffing and maintenance but would need to raise fees for visitors to help “support operational expenses.”
County officials said a new enterprise fund would also be established to collect these fees, with 100% of the revenue dedicated to the management, operations, maintenance, and improvement of the Maroon Bells Scenic Area.
In their proposed fee schedule for next year, the county wants to increase the day-use fee at the Maroon Bells from $10 to $30 – more than double what visitors currently pay for.
Day-use fees for motorcycles and e-bikes would double in price from $5 to $10, while campground fees and wilderness permit trailhead parking would more than double.
Coloradans with a vehicle season pass for the Maroon Bells Scenic Area? Prepare to pay up to three times more than you do currently as the price tag would go from the current $25 to $75 by next year.
A list of the proposed fee increases can be viewed in the image below:
Pitkin County officials defended the price hikes in a statement Wednesday, saying that the day-use fee at the Maroon Bells has been $10 for the past 28 years — even as visitation, staffing and maintenance requirements and operational costs have substantially increased.
“If the $10 fee had simply kept pace with national inflation since 1998, it would be more than $23 today,” officials wrote. “In that context, the proposed $30 day-use fee is intended to reflect the actual costs of providing and maintaining a high-quality visitor experience at one of the most heavily visited and iconic destinations in the region.”
Among the things the proposal would not change? The shuttle fare, which will remain at $16 per adult.
Will Roush, the executive director of Wilderness Workshop, a nonprofit conservation watchdog of public lands, decried the USFS for “abandoning its responsibility to manage one of the most iconic public landscapes in America.”
“Transferring essential public lands management functions to counties and private contractors without any Forest Service public process is a dangerous precedent, and everyone who cares about our public lands should be concerned about what this means for their future stewardship and accessibility,” Roush said in a prepared statement obtained by Denver7 Wednesday. “Public lands belong to all Americans; they are not businesses to be pushed onto local governments or private companies, managed for revenue, or made accessible only to those who can afford higher fees.”
Pitkin County officials said the planning process for the management partnership of the Maroon Bells Scenic Area took into account more than 220 public comments and approximately 8,000 survey responses.
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