It’s not the Great Sand Dunes of great fame and national park status. But a smaller set of sand dunes in northwest Colorado is still known to be “very popular” ー and perhaps in need of new management. 

That’s the thinking of the owning Bureau of Land Management and Colorado Parks and Wildlife as the agencies kick off a public engagement process regarding North Sand Hills OHV Area. That’s been the name under the BLM, which describes the place northeast of Walden as “Colorado’s only open sand dune area for OHV recreation.”

The idea is to reclassify North Sand Hills as a “Recreation Area as part of the Colorado State Park system,” according to a Colorado Parks and Wildlife spokesperson in emailed responses to questions. 

The BLM would maintain ownership while “CPW’s role would be to cooperatively manage recreation at North Sand Hills,” the spokesperson said. But “what that looks like is yet to be determined.”

Options are expected to be presented at a Jan. 21 meeting at the Jackson County Fairgrounds’ Wattenberg Center. Starting at 6 p.m., the meeting can be attended virtually via Zoom. Required registration is listed at CPW’s webpage for the North Sand Hills Recreation Area Management Plan, where CPW has also posted a survey. 

The planning effort comes as “CPW, BLM and stakeholders in Jackson County have long struggled with how to best manage the North Sand Hills area,” the CPW spokesperson said. 

The area is indeed “very popular, especially on holiday weekends during the summer,” reads the BLM’s site description. Outside of seasonal closures between Dec. 15 and April 15, the BLM describes “unique riding opportunities for dirt bike, ATV, side-by-side and sand rail riders” under the gaze of the Medicine Bow mountains, with trails connecting to State Forest State Park. 

The BLM further describes “a small campground of 13 individual pull-through units” and a setting comparable to two others in Colorado. The description continues: “Several archaeological sites have been discovered, increasing the historical and cultural values of the area.”

A CPW partnership “will strengthen management of North Sand Hills for OHV enthusiasts across BLM and state lands,” Kremmling Field Office Manager Steve Leonard said in a statement. “As stewards of Colorado’s only open sand dune area for OHV recreation, we want to ensure this place remains an exciting destination for current and future generations of users.”

CPW’s Deputy Regional Manager Jacob Brey said the place “presents a unique and exciting opportunity for CPW,” adding: “Part of our mission is to offer a diverse range of enjoyable and sustainable outdoor recreation opportunities … The opportunity to manage North Sand Hills recreation also contributes to our mission of a quality state park system by doing just that.”

The proposed partnership is reminiscent of another state and federal partnership in recent years centered around Sweetwater Lake, elsewhere in western Colorado. Planning around the U.S. Forest Service-owned lake stalled amid pushback to a potential state park designation, with locals saying the banner would bring more attention and unsustainable pressure to the area. 

The Jan. 21 meeting regarding North Sand Hills is meant to be “an introduction to the new co-op management,” the CPW spokesperson said. “Additional stakeholder meetings, field surveys, another online feedback form, as well as more public meetings to help inform the management plan are all future engagement opportunities.”

Those opportunities would continue through the summer, the spokesperson said.