Planning Events on Rollins Pass
Rollins Pass route historians Kate & B. Travis Wright offer future organizers an informed perspective on the landscape, route history, access constraints, and stewardship considerations that shape events on Rollins Pass.
Questions about organized events are among those we receive most often each summer and frequently lead organizers to reach out for a conversation. We hope this page provides a useful head start by outlining the questions and considerations worth addressing before a route or event plan is developed. This page is intended for anyone considering an organized bicycle or ski race, ultra marathon, trail run, group hike, cycling tour, charity ride, guided outing, endurance challenge, or other organized activity on or near Rollins Pass in Colorado.
Unsanctioned events can lead to environmental damage, safety concerns, and regulatory violations that impact both the landscape and future access to the area. Rollins Pass is a fragile and historically significant place, and unpermitted gatherings can strain its resources, disrupt wildlife, and create unnecessary risks. Events held without proper authorization often come to the attention of the relevant agencies, which may take enforcement action. Responsible planning helps ensure that Rollins Pass remains protected and accessible for future generations.
PLANNING A RUN, GROUP OUTING, OR OTHER EVENT ON ROLLINS PASS
Rollins Pass is not a venue that can be assumed available for organized events simply because portions of the historic route are publicly accessible. Its roads, trail connections, wilderness boundaries, historic and archaeological resources, private property interfaces, closures, and fragile alpine terrain require careful advance planning.
There is no motorized through-route across Rollins Pass. Event staging, shuttles, emergency access, support vehicles, and evacuation planning must account for the fact that access from one side of the Continental Divide does not provide through access to the other.
Preserve Rollins Pass is not part of any permitting, approval, or agency review process. Contacting us is entirely optional and does not satisfy any notice, consultation, application, or authorization requirement. We do not issue permits, approve routes, confirm legal access, or speak for the U.S. Forest Service, counties, the Colorado Department of Transportation, private landowners, or emergency service providers. The appropriate public agency or landowner determines whether approvals are required; emergency service providers determine their own level of involvement. Further, Preserve Rollins Pass does not promote, market, organize, represent, or assist with seeking approvals for proposed events, and any educational assistance does not indicate support for a particular event or route. Where a proposal may affect historic, cultural, environmental, access, or public-safety interests, Preserve Rollins Pass may offer an independent perspective through the appropriate public process.
As organizers develop an event concept, a route and ownership map can be a useful planning tool. It can identify proposed route segments, parking areas, start and finish locations, aid stations, support locations, turnaround points, and vehicle access points. Mapping the full event footprint by ownership or jurisdiction, including National Forest System land, county roads or rights-of-way, state highways, private property, and wilderness, can help reveal questions that should be directed to the appropriate agency or landowner. The following information is often useful when consulting land managers, counties, emergency service providers, or private landowners:
- Proposed date, time window, alternate date, and exact start and finish locations.
- A route map or GPX file, including all roads, trails, turnarounds, parking areas, aid stations, support vehicles, drop-bag locations, and supply locations.
- The expected total number of participants, organizers, volunteers, spectators, photographers, videographers, and support personnel.
- Whether there will be an entry fee, required donation, fundraising component, sponsor, prize, paid guide, paid service, sale of goods, food vendor, or alcohol service.
- Whether the activity will include course markings, signs, flags, tents, timing equipment, aid stations, shuttle vehicles, amplified sound, drones, filming, photography, or other temporary infrastructure.
- A basic plan for parking, sanitation, emergency response, waste removal, weather contingencies, participant communication, and post-event cleanup.
- A plan showing how the event will avoid ground disturbance, artifact collection, alteration of historic features, and the placement of markings or infrastructure on or near historic or archaeological resources.
A self-directed outing by one person, or a small informal group, may be ordinary recreation when it follows lawful public routes and does not involve organized event infrastructure, paid participation, commercial services, or event operations. Forest Service regulations distinguish noncommercial group use from commercial recreation events. A noncommercial group use involving 75 or more people, including participants and spectators, requires authorization.
Separately, an event may be considered commercial when an organizer intends to charge an entry or participation fee, or when its primary purpose is the sale of a good or service, regardless of whether the organizer expects to make a profit. When the Forest Service determines that an event is commercial, a special use permit is required. The Forest Service recognizes a narrow exception for fees used only to pay actual expenses directly related to operating or staging an activity, where any excess is returned to participants and the fees do not include employee or personnel costs. The US Forest Service, not Preserve Rollins Pass, makes that determination. A fee-based activity should not be assumed exempt simply because it involves one participant or one dozen runners, no expected profit, or a charge described as a donation, cost share, membership fee, or fundraiser. Participant count does not determine whether an activity is commercial. Organizers should contact the appropriate Forest Service office before advertising, accepting registrations, or collecting money for any fee-based activity on National Forest System land.
For temporary summer recreation events, the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests currently advises proponents to submit information by February 15 and notes that permit review may take six months to one year. Organizers should confirm current deadlines directly with the Forest Service because requirements and review schedules can change. These thresholds are not a substitute for route-specific review, especially where wilderness boundaries, closures, parking, cultural resources, or concentrated use are involved.
Wilderness restrictions may be more limiting than general Forest Service group use thresholds. Any proposed route that would enter the Indian Peaks Wilderness or James Peak Wilderness should be discussed directly with the Forest Service before the route is announced or registrations are accepted. In both wilderness areas, group size is limited to 12 people and livestock combined. The Indian Peaks Wilderness has additional permit requirements for organized groups and, between June 1 and September 15, for all overnight trips and day use by groups of 8 to 12 people. All wilderness prohibits motorized equipment and mechanized transportation, including drones, bicycles, carts, motorcycles, and chainsaws. Campfires are prohibited in large portions of the Indian Peaks Wilderness and in all of the James Peak Wilderness. Dogs must remain on hand-held leashes, and camping is prohibited within 100 feet of lakes, streams, and trails.
A smaller group, dispersed start, staggered start time, or separate start location does not by itself resolve wilderness, access, commercial use, or resource protection concerns. Any authorization, if issued, does not supersede the restrictions that apply within wilderness.
County, state, and other requirements can apply independently of any Forest Service decision. Boulder County requires an Event on County Roadways permit whenever an event uses a road in unincorporated Boulder County. Organizers should contact Gilpin County early regarding any organized activity, temporary use, county road, right-of-way, or county property involvement. For Grand County, organizers should contact County staff early to determine whether a temporary use, right-of-way, food event, liquor licensing, private property, or other County approval may apply to the proposed staging, support, parking, or event footprint. Where clarity is needed, organizers may wish to request written confirmation of the County’s direction. A Forest Service determination does not replace county, state highway, private property, food service, alcohol, insurance, emergency planning, or other approvals and coordination requirements that may apply to the route or event footprint.
Organizers should not assume that a permit application, courtesy notification, or discussion with a land manager creates dedicated emergency coverage, places responders on standby, or transfers responsibility for participant safety. Event planning should identify the appropriate emergency service contacts and follow their established coordination processes. In Boulder County, for example, roadway event applications require operations and communications, medical or emergency response, traffic control, and notification plans, along with written notice to the applicable fire protection district before the event. Other jurisdictions may have different processes.
A prudent event plan should identify an event lead; emergency access and evacuation points; reliable primary and backup communications; participant accountability, sweep, and time-cutoff procedures; medical escalation procedures; and clear cancellation, delay, or shutdown triggers for lightning, severe weather, wildfire smoke, fire restrictions, road closures, or other unsafe conditions. After an agency, county, landowner, or emergency service provider has reviewed an event plan, organizers should not change route segments, parking areas, aid stations, staging areas, support locations, or vehicle access without first confirming the revision with the authority responsible for that location.
When time and availability permit, Preserve Rollins Pass may be able to provide an educational presentation or perspective on Rollins Pass route history, changing access patterns, terrain, and stewardship considerations. That context can help organizers recognize avoidable conflicts early and develop a more informed proposal. It is entirely optional, does not replace direct consultation with the appropriate authorities, and does not constitute an approval, endorsement, or determination that an event may proceed. Any assistance, educational presentation, or informal discussion Preserve Rollins Pass provides is offered voluntarily. It draws on our experience observing organized events, along with long-term research and fieldwork on Rollins Pass. It is intended to help organizers understand the route, its history, access constraints, and stewardship considerations. It is not event management, medical, legal, emergency response, engineering, insurance, or permitting advice, and it does not create a duty or responsibility on our part for planning, operating, supervising, or ensuring the safety or legal compliance of an event. Organizers remain responsible for their event, its participants, and all required approvals. Organizers may not state or imply that Preserve Rollins Pass has approved, endorsed, reviewed, sponsored, partnered in, or otherwise supported an event unless they have received prior written permission. Any educational briefing, historical context, or informal discussion remains separate from the approval and permitting processes administered by public agencies, landowners, and emergency service providers.
Planning early helps avoid the avoidable: a route that crosses a closure, enters wilderness without required authorization, relies on unapproved private access, uses a county road without the necessary permit, concentrates vehicles where parking cannot absorb them, or places added pressure on historic and alpine resources. Responsible preparation protects both the event and the future of Rollins Pass, while giving land managers and responders the information needed to assess access, safety, and resource concerns before participants arrive.
WHAT RESPONSIBLE STEWARDSHIP CAN LOOK LIKE
A well-planned event should do more than meet the minimum permitting threshold. It should build Leave No Trace practices, participant education, and resource protection into the event itself. The Fjällräven Classic provides one example of the level of preparation that may be appropriate for a multi-day event in a sensitive mountain landscape. Its approach has included no campfires regardless of fire restrictions; required use of wag bags rather than cat holes; packing out trash; collecting only non-historic litter where appropriate; storing food and scented items such as deodorant and toothpaste in bear-resistant containers; and keeping dishwashing and urination at least 200 feet from lakes, streams, and other water sources. Its participant preparation has also included route overviews, historical context, weather and medical briefings, Leave No Trace instruction, wag-bag demonstrations, and recurring reminders that each campsite and trail segment should be left without evidence of the group’s passage. Medical support, sweep procedures, and clear communications protocols are likewise examples of planning that should be considered for any organized activity in this landscape. These examples are not a substitute for site-specific agency direction, permit conditions, or emergency service coordination. They illustrate the level of care that helps protect Rollins Pass while reducing avoidable impacts on participants, wildlife, water, historic resources, and other visitors.
For additional questions, please contact us.
The primary purpose of our work is to inform the public.
