Compared with record numbers from 2020, it appears hiking has sharply dropped across Colorado’s biggest mountains.

That’s according to Colorado Fourteeners Initiative, which recently released its annual estimates of “hiker use days,” the nonprofit’s term representing an individual at a peak on a given day, aiming to be more accurate than the term “hikers.” (“Anecdotally we know that individual enthusiasts may hike multiple fourteeners over the course of a given year, including climbing the same peak multiple times,” the organization explained in a news release.)

In its ninth version of the report, Colorado Fourteeners Initiative (CFI) determined the lowest hiking levels since levels started being tracked in 2015. In 2023, CFI estimated 260,000 hiker use days — a 6.8.% decline from the year prior and 37% drop from record levels around 415,000 during the pandemic of 2020.

Last year, “hiking Colorado’s fourteeners was like stepping into a time machine and coming out in 2015,” CFI Executive Director Lloyd Athearn said in a news release.

The closure of the popular, multi-peak loop known as Decalibron (fourteeners Democrat, Cameron, Lincoln and Bross) represented “the biggest factor,” Athearn said. For liability concerns, a private landowner closed the route for much of the 2023 season, ahead of the U.S. Forest Service’s public acquisition in December.

Mount Lindsey also remained closed for landowner liability concerns, CFI’s news release noted, adding: “People continued to climb the peak, but at lower levels than usual.”

That has been the general trend across the fourteeners the past few years, according to CFI’s studies. Citing Census data, the news release suggested trends on fourteeners were in line with recent population trends across Colorado: “Net migration population levels over the past two years is roughly half of the amount seen in prior decades.”

CFI’s estimates are based on dozens of infrared counters placed across fourteener trails, along with hiker reports submitted to 14ers.com and other baseline data points from over the years.

Estimates continue to illustrate stark popularity differences between mountains close to Front Range populations and mountains far away: In 2023, CFI suspects 57% of fourteener hiking use (148,000) occurred on the 12 peaks closest to the Denver metro. The other 46 peaks accounted for 112,000 hiker days.

Quandary Peak and Mount Bierstadt continue to top the list for most-hiked — both with levels in the 25,000-30,000 range. Mount Elbert and Grays and Torreys peaks were in the second tier of hiking levels, between 20,000-25,000. Compared with 2022, CFI suspected a slight increase of hiking on Elbert, Grays and Torreys.

In the 10,000-15,000 range, CFI reported similar year-to-year hiking levels across Mount Blue Sky, Longs Peak and Pikes Peak.

See the full report at 14ers.org