Later this month, helicopters could be seen hovering over one of Colorado’s most iconic hiking trails.

That’s the plan as part of what Eagle-Holy Cross District Ranger Leanne Veldhuis called “the next major phase” of reconstruction along Hanging Lake Trail. Helicopters are set to deliver material for building seven new foot bridges along the steep, narrow corridor within Glenwood Canyon.

It was a summer of highly technical work along the trail, with the more complicated part to come, Veldhuis explained. “Definitely anything involving helicopters automatically a more complicated endeavor.”

Hanging Lake Trail had been open on a limited basis during construction all summer. Now it is closed entirely for the bridge replacements.

Hiking the trail has been by reservation, with a reported cap of 615 visitors per day. Veldhuis said the goal is to re-open reservations by May 1.

That’s while she emphasized other important work to be done in the months ahead: a redeveloped trailhead and parking area and a new boardwalk at the destination waterfall-fed pool called Spouting Rock.

It’s all part of the ultimate goal the U.S. Forest Service has worked toward since wreckage in the wake of the 2020 Grizzly Creek fire: “having a sustainable trail for the next 100 years,” Veldhuis said.

“We’ve put so much effort into it so that once this project is a wrap, hopefully we don’t really have to do much more,” she said.

With funding from the National Forest Foundation, Great Outdoors Colorado and the city of Glenwood Springs, the $4.5 million project called for some realignments and erosion-mitigating features along the trail. Contract documents traced the trail’s creation back 100 years ago, with modifications by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s.

While recently touring trail progress, Veldhuis said she was reminded of those historic, rock-oriented crews.

The summer saw “a lot of really high-level, master stone work,” she said. “Really going in on the trail in terms of stone steps and shoring up some parts of the trail that were susceptible to erosion and wear and tear in the past.”

For those familiar with the steep, mile-long trail, Veldhuis said realigned sections would feel subtle. However minor, she called those reroutes “really important” — “either bumping the trail tread a little bit farther away or higher above the creek, so in the case of future spring flooding, the trail will still be there and not be under water.”

The foot bridges, too, were impacted by the aftermath of the 2021 wildfire across the canyon: Rain rushed down the newly barren hillsides, sending rock and damaging debris with it.

Along with the bridges, upgraded trailhead and new boardwalk at Spouting Rock, Veldhuis said crews will be revegetating and restoring former parts of the trail. “We’re also assessing any hazard trees along the trail, as well as doing rock fall mitigation,” she said.

Hanging Lake has been a top focus for Veldhuis since stepping in as the Forest Service’s local district ranger; she started just a few weeks before the Grizzly Creek fire, which was initially feared to have destroyed the postcard destination. What followed was fear of the trail being lost to the fire’s aftermath, ahead of the vision for reconstruction.

“It definitely feels really exciting to have this momentum, being near an end point or a return to normalcy,” Veldhuis said. “Out of the disasters that have happened in and around the lake and Glenwood Canyon, what’s going to result is this beautiful product that wouldn’t have happened otherwise.”