COLORADO, USA — The number of people hiking Colorado's 14,000-foot mountains dropped last year to the lowest level since 2015, according to data from the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative.
The organization estimates 260,000 hikes were taken on Colorado 14ers in 2023. That's the lowest number since 2015, when the organization started making estimates.
The highest number was 2020, when the organization estimated 415,000 hiker days. A "hiker day" is one person hiking one peak on one day. Some people hike multiple 14ers in one year, and some climb the same 14er several times.
The 2023 number was a 6.8% decline from 2022, CFI said.
The organization said the temporary closure of the popular Decalibron Loop in 2023 resulted in a 17,500-day drop in the Mosquito Range, the largest decline of any range. A private property owner closed the trail, which includes four fourteeners, in the spring amid concerns about his own liability if hikers got hurt. The loop reopened, with some additional paperwork required, in late July 2023.
Mount Bierstadt and Quandary Peak were the most popular 14ers in 2023, with use on each peak estimated to be in the 25,000 to 30,000 hiker days range, CFI said.
Mount Elbert and Grays and Torreys Peaks were in the second tier of use, with between 20,000 and 25,000 hiker days each. The Decalibron Loop, which was in the 20,000 to 25,000 range in 2022, fell to the 7,000 to 10,000 days range due to the closure.
Three peaks—Mount Blue Sky and Longs and Pikes Peaks—were in the 10,000 to 15,000 range, the organization said.
CFI maintained a network of 23 trail counter locations in 2023. The organization said Mount Bierstadt’s trail counter was stolen for the second year in a row, leaving only six days of collected counter data.
The organization's hiking use projections are based on a combination of several data sources, including trail counters and crowdsourced “14er checklists” submitted to 14ers.com.
