Free Nordic Trails

Local groups, towns and neighborhoods work together to provide free dog friendly groomed or packed Nordic trails. Mountain States Snowcats works with Headwaters Trails Alliance (HTA) and the Towns of Winter Park and Fraser to groom the Fraser River Trail from Winter Park Resort to Safeway. HTA grooms the Fraser to Granby Trail from Fraser all the way to Granby. They have secured funding and pay staff to groom. Click here for HTA’s grooming report >>

Free Groomed Cross Country Ski Trails

Rendezvous Trails – East of Winter Park. Visit their website for details: rendezvouscolorado.com/trails/

Fraser River Trail – From Winter Park Resort to Fraser. A snowmobile packed trail with xc tracks from the ski area to Safeway and the rendezvous loop, you can ski or snowshoe from town to the resort or vice versa. This trail can be accessed from many areas including:

• the Trademark Condominiums with Parking at the WP overflow lot below the ‘bus barn’,

• off highway 40 where it crosses the Fraser River near the Idlewild Campground, near the Winter Park municipal lot

• from the Winter Park Chamber of Commerce, access is directly East behind the Chamber

• from the former Idlewild Ski area beyond Hideaway Park and Confluence Park

• at Rendezvous by the south end of the summer Fraser River Trail, opposite the Rendezvous playground

• behind Safeway shopping Center

The Fraser to Granby Trail – groomed with tracks can be accessed:

• at the Fraser Ball Fields and Ice Skating Rink

• from the town of Tabernash, following signs for the trail on the southwest side of the highway, heading north and west towards Red Dirt Hill

• from the top of Red Dirt Hill at the entrance to Snow Mountain Ranch

Grand Park Trail – As of 2020, these trails are no longer accessible to the public. Groomed trails in Grand Park have been suspended by the ownership. We hope this may change one day.

Fraser Valley Metropolitan Recreation District – a flat, easy loop in the Fraser meadow aka Grand Park behind the Rec center; walk your dog, snowshoe, or cross country ski, with set tracks. Excellent for quick exercise without having to drive out of town.

Semi-Groomed or Multi-Use Trails that may be Packed or Groomed by Machine

The Fraser Experimental Forest can be accessed by taking County Rd 73 from Fraser and following it to the end of Winter Plowing. There are parking lots on both sides of the road. The West side of the road, including the road into the St Louis creek region is non-motorized, except by Experimental Forest personnel checking weather stations and research plots, so it gets machine packed weekly. Trails on the East side of the road are open to snowmobile traffic as well (except for the Fools Creek trail to Mt Nystrom), but do make for good light touring.

Vasquez Creek – accessed from Winter Park at the end of Vasquez Road, with a couple of small pull-offs, as well as a small lot at the end of winter plowing. This region has a plethora of snow-covered summer roads and trails of variable width and difficulty.

This is by no means a complete list, but a highlight of some easy to get to areas to explore.

You can also find some great ideas in the Nordic News Corner, like Diana Lynn’s Free Skiing article.

Find trail maps and the COTREX mobile and desktop trail app at headwaterstrails.org/trail-maps/.